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SEX  AND  SOCIETY 


SEX  ^«^  SOCIETY 

STUDIES  in  THE  SOCIAL 
PSYCHOLOGY    OF   SEX 


BY 

WILLIAM   I.  THOMAS 

Associate  Professor  of  Sociology 
in  the    Uni-versity   of  Chicago 


Chicago:   THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO 
PRESS.     London:  T.   FISHER   UNWIN,    1907 


13808 L 


COPYEIGHT  1907  By 
The  University  of  Chicago 


Published  February  1907 
Second  Imprp~sioii  March  1907 


Composed  and  Printed  By 

The  University  of  Chicago  Presi 

Chicago,  lllinoia,  U.  S.  k. 


~ — •     -?    / 


AUTHOR'S  NOTE. 

These  studies  have  been  published  in  various 
journals  at  different  times.  They  are  reprinted 
together  because  there  is  some  demand  for  them, 
and  they  are  not  easily  accessible.  In  prepar- 
ing them  for  publication  in  the  present  form, 
some  of  them  have  been  expanded  and  all  of 
them  have  been  revised. 

While  each  study  is  complete  in  itself,  the 
general  thesis  running  through  all  of  them  is 
the  same — that  the  differences  in  bodily  habit 
between  men  and  women,  particularly  the 
greater  strength,  restlessness,  and  motor  apti- 
tude of  man,  and  the  more  stationary  condition 
of  woman,  have  had  an  important  influence  on 
social  forms  and  activities,  and  on  the  character 
and  mind  of  the  two  sexes. 

••Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes"  appeared 
in  the  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  III,  31  ff., 
with  the  title,  "On  a  Difference  in  the  Metab- 
olism of  the  Sexes;"  "Sex  and  Primitive  Social 
Control,"  ibid.,  Ill,  754  ff.;  "Sex  and  Primitive 
Industry,"  ibid.,  IV,  474  ff.;  "Sex  and  Primi- 
tive Morality,"  ibid.,  IV,  774  ff.;  "The  Psy- 
chology of  Modesty  and  Clothing,"  ibid.,  V, 


vi  Author^ s  Note 

246  ff. ;  "The  Adventitious  Character  of  Wom- 
an," ibid.,  XII,  32  £f.;  "The  Mind  of  Woman 
and  the  Lower  Races,"  ibid.,  XII,  435  ff. ;  "The 
Psychology  of  Exogamy,"  in  the  Zeitschrijt  fur 
Socialwissenschajt,  V,  i  ff.,  with  the  title,  "Der 
Ursprung  der  Exogamie;"  "Sex  and  Social 
Feeling,"  in  the  Psychological  Review,  XI,  61  ff., 
with  the  title,  "The  Sexual  Element  in  Sensi- 
bility." Portions  of  a  paper  printed  in  the 
Forum,  XXXVI,  305  ff.,  with  the  title,  "Is  the 
Human  Brain  Stationary?"  are  incorporated 
in  the  paper  on  "The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the 
Lower  Races,"  and  portions  of  a  paper  printed 
in  the  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  IX,  593  ff., 
with  the  title,  "The  Psychology  of  Race-Preju- 
dice," are  incorporated  in  the  paper  on  "Sex 
and  Social  Feeling."  I  acknowledge  the  cour- 
tesy of  the  editors  of  these  journals  for  permis- 
sion to  reprint. 

W.  1.  T. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes       ...        3 
Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  ....       55 

Sex  and  Social  Feeling 97  »^ 

Sex  and  Primitive  Industry 123 

Sex  and  Primitive  Morality 149 

The  Psychology  of  Exogamy 175 

The  Psychology  of  Modesty  and  Clothing     .  201 

The  Adventitious  Character  of  Woman  .     .  223 

The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     .  251    ,/^ 

Index 315 


ORGANIC  DIFFERENCES  IN  THE 
SEXES 


ORGANIC  DIFFERENCES  IN  THE 
SEXES 

A  grand  difference  between  plant  and  animal 
life  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  plant  is  concerned 
chiefly  with  storing  energy,  and  the  .animal  with 
consuming  it.  The  plant  by  a  very  slow  process 
converts  lifeless  into  living  matter,  expending 
little  energy  and  living  at  a  profit.  The  animal 
is  unable  to  change  lifeless  into  living  matter, 
but  has  developed  organs  of  locomotion,  inges- 
tion, and  digestion'which  enable  it  to  prey  upon 
the  plant  world 'and  upon  other' animal  forms; 
and  in  contrast  with  plant  life  it  lives  at  a  loss  of 
energy.  Expressed  in  biological  formula,  the 
habit  of  the  plant  is  predominantly  anabolic, 
that  of  the  animal  predominantly  katabolic. 

Certain  biologists,  limiting  their  attention  in 
the  main  to  the  lower  forms  of  life,  have  main- 
tained very  plausibly  that  males  are  more  kata- 
bolic than  females,  and  that  maleness  is  the 
product  of  influences  tending  to  produce  a  kata- 
bolic habit  of  body.'  If  this  assumption  is 
correct,  maleness  and  femaleness  are  merely  a 
repetition  of  the  contrast  existing  between  the 

'  Cf.  Geddes  and  Thomson,  The  Evolution  oj  Sex,  passim. 
3 


Sex  and  Society 

Jmal  and  the  plant.  The  katabolic  animal 
form,  through  its  rapid  destruction  of  energy, 
has  been  carried  developmentally  away  from 
the  anabolic  plant  form;  and  of  the  two  sexes 
the  male  has  been  carried  farther  than  the  female 
from  the  plant  process.  The  body  of  morpho- 
logical, physiological,  ethnological,  and  demo- 
graphic dai^  which  follows  becomes  coherent, 
indeed,  only  on  the  assumption  that  woman 
stands  nearer  to  the  plant  process  than  man, 
representing  the  constructive  as  opposed  to  the 
disruptive  metabolic  tendency.' 

The  researches  of  Diising,"  supplementing 
the  antecedent  observations  of  Ploss,^  and  fur- 
ther supplemented  by  the  ethnological  data  col- 
lected by  Westermarck,''  seem  to  demonstrate  a 
connection  between  an  abundance  of  nutrition 

'  Havelock  Ellis,  Man  and  Woman,  has  brought  together  a 
mass  of  very  valuable  material  on  the  question  of  the  somatic 
and  psychic  differences  of  man  and  woman,  and  H.  Campbell, 
in  a  volume  of  much  the  same  scope,  Differences  in  tlie  Nervous 
Organization  of  Man  and  Woman,  has  given  a  rdsumd  of  the 
theory  of  Geddes  and  Thomson,  and  suggested  its  extension  to 
the  human  species. 

*  C.  Dilsing,  (i)  Die  Regulirung  des  Geschlechtsverhdltnisses 
bei  der  Vermehrung  der  Menschen,  Thiere  und  Pfianzen.  (2)  Das 
Geschlechtsverhdltniss  der  Geburten  in  Preussen. 

3  H.  Ploss,  "  Ueber  die  das  Geschlechtsverhaltniss  der  Kinder 
bedingenden  Ursachen,"  Monaisschrift  fiir  Geburtskunde  und 
Frauenkrankheiten,  Vol.  XII,  pp.  321-60. 

*  E.  Westermarck,  The  History  of  Human  Marriage,  pp. 
470-83- 


Organic  Differences  in  the  C^^xes  5 

and  females,  and  between  scarcity  and  males, 
in  relatively  higher  animal  forms  and  in  man. 
The  main  facts  in  support  of  the  theory  that  such 
a  connection  exists  are  the  following:  Furriers 
testify  that  rich  regions  yield  more  furs  from 
females  and  poor  regions  more  from  males.  In 
high  altitudes,  where  nutrition  is  scant,  the  birth- 
rate of  boys  is  high  as  compared  with  lower  alti- 
tudes in  the  same  locality.  Ploss  has  pointed 
out,  for  instance,  that  in  Saxony  from  1847  to 
1849  th^  yi^ld  of  rye  fell,  and  the  birth-rate  of 
boys  rose  with  the  approach  of  high  altitudes. 
More  boys  are  bom  in  the  country  than  in  cities, 
because  city  diet  is  richer,  especially  in  meat; 
Diising  shows  that  in  Prussia  the  numerical  ex- 
cess of  boys  is  greatest  in  the  country  districts, 
less  in  the  villages,  still  less  in  the  cities,  and  least 
in  Berlin. '  In  times  of  war,  famine,  and  migra- 
tion more  boys  are  bom,  and  more  are  born  also 
in  poor  than  in  well-to-do  families.  European 
statistics  show  that  when  food-stuffs  are  high  or 
scarce  the  number  of  marriages  diminishes,  and 
in  consequence  a  diminished  number  of  births  fol- 
lows, and  a  heightened  percentage  of  boys ;  with 
the  recurrence  of  prosperity  and  an  increased 
number  of  marriages  and  births,  the  percentage 

'  Diising,  Das  Geschlechtsverhdltniss  der  Geburten  in  Preussen, 
PP-  29-33- 


6  Sex  and  Society 

of  female  births  rises  (though  it  never  equals 
numerica'ly  that  of  the  males).'  More  children 
are  born  from  warm  weather  than  from  cold- 
vveather  conceptions,^  but  relatively  more  boys 
are  bom  from  cold-weather  conceptions.  Pro- 
fessor xA.xel  Key  has  shown  from  statistics  of 
18,000  Swedish  school  children  that  from  the 
end  of  November  and  the  beginning  of  Decem- 
ber until  the  end  of  March  or  the  middle  of 
xA-pril,  growth  in  children  is  feeble.  From  July- 
August  to  November-December  their  daily  in- 
crease in  weight  is  three  times  as  great  as  during 
the  winter  months.^  This  is  evidence  in  con- 
firmation of  a  connection  between  maleness, 
slow  growth,  and  either  poor  nutrition  or  cold 
weather,  or  both.  Professor  Key's  investigations'* 
have  also  confirmed  the  well-known  fact  that 
maturity  is  reached  earlier  in  girls  than  in  boys 
and  have  shown  that  in  respect  of  growth  the 
ill-nourished  girls  follow  the  law  of  growth  of 
the  boys.     Growth  is  a  function  of  nutrition, 

"  Diising,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  14-19.  '    \ 

»  H.  Ploss.  Das  Weib  in  der  Natur-  u^d  Volkerkunde,  3.  Aufl., 
Vol.  I,  p.  419. 

3  Axel  Key,  "Die  Pubertatsentwickelung  und  das  Verhaltniss 
derselben  zu  den  Krankheitserscheinungen  der  Schuljugend," 
Verhandlungen  des  X.  I nternaiionakn  Medicinischen  Congresses, 
1890,  Vol.  I,  p.  91. 

♦  Ibid.,  pp.  84-90. 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes  7 

and  puberty  is  a  sign  that  somatic  growth  is  so 
far  finished  that  the  organism  produces  a  surplus 
of  nutrition  to  be  used  in  reproduction.  Organi- 
cally reproduction  is  also  a  function  of  nutrition, 
and,  as  Spencer  pointed  out,  is  to  be  regarded 
as  discontinuous  growth.  The  fact  than  an 
anabolic  surplus,  preparatory  to  the  ]':atabolic 
process  of  reproduction,  is  stored  at  an  earlier 
period  in  the  female  than  in  the  male,  and  that 
this  period  is  retarded  in  the  ill-nourished 
female,  is  a  confirmation  of  the  view  that  female- 
ness  is  an  expression  of  the  tendency  to  store  nu- 
triment, and  explains  also  the  infantile  somatic 
characters  of  woman.  Finally,  the  fact  that 
polyandry  is  found  almost  exclusively  in  poor 
countries,  coupled  with  the  fact  that  ethnologists 
uniformly  report  a  scarcity  of  women  in  those 
countries,  permits  us  to  attribute  polyandry  to  a 
scarcity  of  women  and  scarcity  of  women  to  poor 
food  conditions. 

This  evidence  should  be  considered  in  connec- 
tion with  the  experiments  of  Yung  on  tadpoles, 
of  Siebold  on  wasps,  and  of  Klebs  on  the  modifi- 
cation of  male  and  female  organs  in  plants : 

According  to  Yung,  tadpoles  pass  through  an  hermaph- 
roditic stage,  in  common,  according  to  other  authorities, 
with  most  animals When  the  tadpoles  were  left 


8  Sex  and  Society 

to  themselves,  the  females  were  rather  in  the  majority. 
In  three  lots  the  proportion  of  females  to  males  was: 
54-46,  61-39,  56~44-  The  average  number  of  females 
was  thus  about  fifty-seven  in  the  hundred.  In  the  first 
brood,  by  feeding  one  set  with  beef,  Yung  raised  the  per- 
centage of  females  from  54  to  78 :  in  the  second,  with  fish, 
the  percentage  rose  from  61  to  81 ;  while  in  the  third  set, 
when  the  especially  nutritious  flesh  of  frogs  was  supplied, 
the  percentage  rose  from  56  to  92.  That  is  to  say,  in  the 
last  case  the  result  of  high  feeding  was  that  there  were  92 
females  and  8  males.* 

Similarly,  the  experiments  of  Siebold  on  wasps  show 
that  the  percentage  of  females  increases  from  spring  to 
August,  and  then  diminishes.  We  may  conclude  without 
scruple  that  the  production  of  females  from  fertilized  ova 
increases  with  the  temperature  and  food  supply,  and 
decreases  as  these  diminish." 

Nor  are  there  many  facts  more  significant  than  the 
simple  and  well-known  one  that  within  the  first  eight  days 
of  larval  life  the  addition  of  food  will  determine  the  strik- 
ing and  functional  differences  between  worker  and  queen. 3 

It  is  certainly  no  mere  chance,  but  agrees  with  other 
well-known  facts,  that  for  the  generation  of  the  female 
organ  more  favorable  external  circumstances  must  pre- 
vail, while  the  male  organ  may  develop  under  very  much 
more  unfavorable  conditions.* 

'  Geddes  and  Thompson,  loc.  cit.,  Book  I,  chap.  4. 

'  Rolph,  quoted  by  Geddes  and  Thompson,  loc.  cit.,  Book  I, 
chap.  4. 

3  Geddes  and  Thompson,  ibid. 

*  G.  Klebs,  Ueher  das  Verhdltniss  des  mdnnlichen  und  weib- 
lichen  Geschlechis  in  der  Natur,  p.  19. 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes  g 

These  facts  are  not  conclusive,  but  they  all 
point  in  the  same  direction,  and  are  probably 
sufficient  to  establish  a  connection  between  food 
conditions  and  the  determination  of  sex.  But 
behind  the  mere  fact  that  a  different  attitude 
toward  food  determines  difference  of  sex  lies  the 
more  fundamental — indeed,  the  real — explana- 
tion of  the  fact,  and  this  chemists  and  physiolo- 
gists are  not  at  present  able  to  give  us.  Re- 
searches must  be  carried  farther  on  the  effect  of 
temperature,  light,  and  water  on  variation,  be- 
fore we  may  hope  to  reach  a  positive  conclu- 
sion. We  can  only  assume  that  the  chemical 
constitution  of  the  organism  at  a  given  moment 
conditions  the  sex  of  the  offspring,  and  is  itself 
conditioned  by  various  factors— light,  heat, 
water,  electricity,  etc. — and  that  food  is  one  of 
these  variables. '     It  is  sufficient  for  our  present 

'  Food  affords  the  basis  for  metabolic  changes  in  the  parent 
organism,  but  it  is  probable  that  food  is  less  directly  related  than 
heat  and  light  to  the  determination  of  sex.  Sachs,  whose  experi- 
ments must  be  given  the  greatest  possible  weight,  has  determined 
that  the  ultra-violet  rays  of  light  are  necessary  to  the  chemical 
changes  essential  to  the  formation  of  the  reproductive  organs. 
(J.  Sachs,  "  Ueber  die  Wirkung  der  ultra violetten  Strahlen  auf  die 
Bliithenbildung,"  Gesammelte  Ahhandlungen  iiber  Pflanzen- 
Physiologie,  Vol.  I,  pp.  293  ff.)  More  recently,  Klebs  has  shown 
that  by  diminishing  the  intensity  of  light  the  development  of  female 
sex  organs  in  ferns  can  be  interrupted,  so  that,  in  spite  of  the 
presence  of  male  organs,  fertilization  is  impossible;   at  the  same 


lo  Sex  and  Society 

purpose  that  sex  is  a  constitutional  matter,  indi- 
rectly dependent  upon  food  conditions;  that  the 
female  is  the  result  of  a  surplus  of  nutrition;  and 
that  the  relation  reported  among  the  lower  forms 
persists  in  the  human  species. 

In  close  connection  with  the  foregoing  we  have 
the  fact,  reported  by  Maupas, '  that  certain  Infu- 
sorians  are  capable  of  reproducing  asexually  for 
a  number  of  generations,  but  that,  unless  the 
individuals  are  sexually  fertilized  by  crossing 
with  unrelated  forms  of  the  same  species,  they 
finally  exhibit  all  the  signs  of  senile  degeneration, 
ending  in  death. "^  After  sexual  conjugation 
there  was  an  access  of  vitality,  and  the  asexual 
reproduction  proceeded  as  before.  "The  evi- 
dent result  of  these  long  and  fatiguing  experi- 

time,  the  prothallia  are  enabled  in  weak  light  to  grow  feebly  and 
to  put  out  small  asexual  processes,  which  in  the  presence  of  bright 
light  become  normal  prothallia.  Similarly,  the  development  of 
sexual  organs  in  algae  is  dependent  on  a  certain  intensity  of  light, 
and  the  plant  remains  sterile  if  the  light  is  diminished  below  a 
certain  point.  (G.  Klebs,  Ueber  einige  Prohhme  der  Physiologie 
der  Forlpflanzimg,  pp.  13-16.) 

'  E.  Maupas,  "Theorie  de  la  sexualite  des  Infusoires  cilies," 
Comptes  rendus.  Vol.  CV,  pp.'  356  ff. 

'  The  extinction  took  place  at  about  the  330th  generation  in 
Onychodromus grandis,  at  about  the  320th  generation  in  Stylonichia 
mytilis,  at  about  the  330th  generation  in  Leiicophrys  patula,  and 
at  about  the  66cth  generation  in  Oxytricha  (indeterminate). 
(Maupas,  loc.  cit.,  p.  358.) 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes  ii 

ments  is  that  among  the  ciliates  the  life  of  the 
species  is  decomposed  into  evolutional  cycles, 
each  one  having  for  its  point  of  departure  an 
individual  regenerated  and  rejuvenated  by  sexual 
copulation."' 
The  results  obtained  by  Alaupas  receive  strik- 

I  Maupas,  loc.  ciL,  p.  358.  Later  investigations  have  tended 
to  discredit  Maupas'  experiments  as  a  whole  by  showing  that  the 
Infusorians  with  which  he  experimented  can  be  kept  alive  indefi- 
nitely by  a  change  of  diet,  without  the  aid  of  sexual  conjugation. 
This  merely  confirms  the  view,  however,  that  abundant  nutrition 
and  crossing  are  alike  favorable  to  health:  "We  must  admire  the 
skill  of  the  investigator  who  was  able  to  keep  his  colonies  alive  for 
months  and  years  under  such  artificial  conditions,  but  we  may 
venture  to  doubt  whether  the  fate  of  extinction  which  did  ulti- 
mately overtake  them  was  really  due  to  the  absence  of  conjugation, 
and  not  to  the  unnaturalness  of  the  conditions."  A.  Weismann, 
The  Evolution  0}  Tlieory,  Vol.  I,  p.  329. 

Since  the  above  was  written.  Calkins  has  made  a  series  of  new 
experiments,  the  results  of  which  differed  in  several  respects  from 
those  j^elded  by  Maupas'  experiments.  When  his  infusorian 
cultures  began  to  grow  weaker,  as  happened  frequently  and  at 
irregular  intervals,  he  was  alwavs  able  to  restore  them  to  more 
vigorous  life  by  a  change  of  diet,  and  especially  by  substituting 
grated  meat,  liver,  and  the  like  for  infusions  of  hay.  Certain 
salts,  too,  had  the  same  effect;  the  animals  became  perfectly 
vigorous  again.  Calkins  believes  that  chemical  agents,  and 
especially  salts,  must  be  supplied  to  the  protoplasm  from  time, 
to  time.  He  reared  620  generations  of  Paramoecium  without 
conjugation.  But  the  620th  was  weakly  and  without  energy.  The 
addition  of  an  extract  of  sheep's  brains  made  them  perfectly  fresh 
and  vigorous  again.  Further  experiments  in  this  direction  are 
to  be  desired,  but,  according  to  those  of  Calkins,  it  is  probable 
that  Infusorians  can  continue  to  live  for  an  unlimited  time  even 
without  conjugation.     {Ibid.,  note.) 


12  Sex  and  Society 

ing  confirmation  in  the  universal  experience  of 
stock-breeders,  that,  in  order  to  keep  a  breed  in 
health,  it  is  necessary  to  cross  it  occasionally 
with  a  distinct  but  allied  variety.  It  appears, 
then,  that  a  mixture  of  blood  has  a  favorable 
effect  on  the  metabolism  of  the  organism,  com- 
parable to  that  of  abundant  nutrition,  and  that 
innutrition  and  in-and-in  breeding  are  alike  pre- 
judicial. 

If  this  is  true,  and  if  heightened  nutrition  yields 
an  increased  proportion  of  females,  we  ought  to 
find  that  breeding-out  is  favorable  to  the  pro- 
duction of  females,  and  breeding-in  to  the  pro- 
duction of  males;  and  a  considerable  body  of 
evidence  in  favor  of  this  assumption  exists. ' 

Observations  of  above  4,000  cases  show  that, 
among  horses,  the  more  the  parent  animals 
differ  in  color,  the  more  the  female  foals  out- 
number the  male.  SimOarly,  in-and-in-bred 
cattle  give  an  excessively  large  number  of  bull 
calves.  Liaisons  produce  an  abnormally  large 
proportion  of  females;^  incestuous  unions,  of 
males.  ^    Among  the  Jews,  who  frequently  marry 

•  Westermarck,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  476-83,  following  a  suggestion  of 
D  using,  has  brought  together  much  of  the  e^ddence  on  this  point, 
but  the  application  of  the  facts  here  made  has  not,  I  believe,  been 
suggested. 

3  A.  von  Oettingen,  Die  Moralstaiistik,  3.  Aufl.,  p.  56. 

aDiising,  Die  Regulirung  des  Geschlechtsverhdltnisses,  p.  237. 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes  13 

cousins,  the  percentage  of  male  births  is  very 
high. 

According  to  Mr.  Jacobs'  comprehensive  manuscript 
collection  of  Jewish  statistics  ....  the  average  propor- 
tion of  male  and  female  Jewish  births  registered  in  vari- 
ous countries  is  114. 5  males  to  100  females,  whilst  the 
average  proportion  among  the  non-Jewish  population  of 
the  corresponding  countries  is  105 .  25  males  to  100  fe- 
males  His  collection  includes  details  of  118  mixed 

marriages;  of  these  28  are  sterile,  and  in  the  remainder 
there  are  145  female  children  and  122  male — that  is, 
118.82  females  to  1 00  males .  ^ 

The  testimony  is  also  tolerably  full  that  among 
metis  and  among  exogamous  peoples  the  female 
birth-rate  is  often  excessively  high.^ 

Viewed  with  reference  to  activity,  the  animal 
is  an  advance  on  the  plant,  from  which  it  departs 
by  morphological  and  physiological  variations 
suited  to  a  more  energized  form  of  life ;  and  the 
female  may  be  regarded  as  the  animal  norm  from 
which  the  male  departs  by  further  morphological 
variations.  It  is  now  well  known  that  variations 
are  more  frequent  and  marked  in  males  than  in 
females.  Among  the  lower  forms,  in  which 
activity  is  more  directly  determined  mechanically 
by  the  stimuli  of  heat,  light,  and  chemical  attrac- 

I  Westermarck,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  479  and  481  n. 
^Cf.  ibid.,  pp.  476-83. 


14  Sex  and  Society 

tion,  and  where  in  general  the  food  and  hght  are 
evenly  distributed  through  the  medium  in  which 
life  exists,  and  where  the  limits  of  variation  are 
consequently  small,  the  constitutional  nutritive 
tendency  of  the  female  manifests  itself  in  size. 
Among  many  Cephalopoda  and  Cirripedia,  and 
among  certain  of  the  Articulata,  the  female  is 
larger  than  the  male.  Female  spiders,  bees, 
wasps,  hornets,  and  butterflies  are  larger  than  the 
males,  and  the  difference  is  noticeable  even  in  the 
larval  stage.  So  considerable  is  the  difference  in 
size  between  the  male  and  female  cocoons  of  the 
silk-moth  that  in  France  they  are  separated  by 
a  particular  mode  of  weighing.'  The  same 
superiority  of  the  female  is  found  among  fishes 
and  reptiles;  and  this  relation,  w^herever  it 
occurs,  may  be  associated  with  a  habit  of  life  in 
which  food  conditions  are  simple  and  stimuli 
mandatory.  As  we  rise  in  the  scale  toward 
backboned  and  w^arm-blooded  animals,  the 
males  become  larger  in  size;  and  this  reversal 
of  relation,  like  the  development  of  offensive  and 
defensive  weapons,  is  due  to  the  superior  varia- 
tional tendency  of  the  male,  resulting  in  char- 

'  G.  Delaunay,  "De  I'egalite  et  inegalit6  des  deux  sexes," 
Revue  sci€7ilifique,  September  3,  1881;  C.  Dan\-in,  Descent  of 
Man,  chap.  10. 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes  15 

acters  which  persist  in  the  species  wherever  they 
prove  of  life-saving  advantage.' 

The  superior  activity  and  variability  of  the 
male  among  lower  forms  has  been  pointed  out  in 
great  detail  by  Darwin  and  confirmed  by  others. 

Throughout  the  animal  kingdom,  when  the  sexes  differ 
in  external  appearance,  it  is,  with  rare  exceptions,  the 
male  which  has  been  more  modified;  for,  generally,  the 
female  retains  a  closer  resemblance  to  the  young  of  her 
own  species,  and  to  other  adult  members  of  the  same 
group.  The  cause  of  this  seems  to  lie  in  the  males  of 
almost  all  animals  having  stronger  passions  than  the 
females.^ 

Darwin  explains  the  greater  variability  of  the 
males — as  shown  in  more  brilliant  colors,  orna- 
mental feathers,  scent-pouches,  the  power  of 
music,  spurs,  larger  canines  and  claws,  horns, 
antlers,  tusks,  dewlaps,  manes,  crests,  beards, 
etc. — as  due  to  the  operation  of  sexual  selection, 
meaning  by  this  "the  advantage  which  certain 
individuals  have  over  others  of  the  same  sex  and 
species  solely  in  respect  of  reproduction,"^  the 
female  choosing  to  pair  with  the  more  attractive 
m^ale,  or  the  stronger  male  prevailing  in  a  contest 

1  A.  Weismann,  Essays  on  Heredity,  Vol.  I,  "The  Duration  of 
Life,"  has  shown  that  size  and  longevity  are  determined  by  natural 
selection. 

2  Darwin,  Descent  oj  Man,  chap.  8. 

3  Ihid. 


1 6  Sex  and  Society 

for  the  female.  Wallace'  advanced  the  opposite 
view,  that  the  female  owes  her  soberness  to  the 
fact  that  only  inconspicuous  females  have  in  the 
struggle  for  existence  escaped  destruction  during 
the  breeding  season.  There  are  fatal  objections 
to  both  these  theories;  and,  taking  his  cue  from 
Tylor,^  Wallace  himself,  in  a  later  w^ork,  sug- 
gested what  is  probably  the  true  explanation, 
namely,  that  the  superior  variability  of  the  male 
is  constitutional,  and  due  to  general  laws  of 
growth  and  development.  "If  ornament,"  he 
says,  "  is  the  natural  product  and  direct  outcome 
of  superabundant  health  and  vigor,  then  no 
other  mode  of  selection  is  needed  to  account  for 
the  presence  of  such  ornament."^    That  a  tend- 

•  A.  R.  Wallace,  Contributions  to  the  Theory  oj  Natural  Selec- 
tion, chap.  3. 

'  "If  we  take  the  highly  decorated  species — that  is,  animals 
marked  by  alternate  dark  or  light  bands  or  spots,  such  as  the 
zebra,  some  deer,  or  the  carnivora — we  find,  first,  that  the  region 
of  the  spinal  column  is  marked  by  a  dark  stripe;  secondly,  that 
the  regions  of  the  appendages,  or  limbs,  are  diilerently  marked; 
thirdly,  that  the  flanks  are  striped  or  spotted  along  or  between 
the  regions  of  the  lines  of  the  ribs;  fourthly,  that  the  shoulder  and 
hip  regions  are  marked  by  curved  lines;  fifthly,  that  the  pattern 
changes,  and  the  direction  of  the  Hnes  or  spots,  at  the  head,  neck, 
and  every  joint  of  the  limbs;  and,  lastly,  that  the  tips  of  the  ears, 
nose,  tail,  and  the  feet  and  the  eye  are  emphasized  in  color.  In 
spotted  animals  the  greatest  length  of  the  spot  is  generally  in 
the  direction  of  the  largest  development  of  the  skeleton." — A. 
Tylor,  Coloration  in  Animals  and  Plants,  p.  92. 

3  A.  R.  Wallace,  Darwinism,  chap.  10. 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes  17 

ency  to  spend  energy  more  rapidly  should 
result  in  more  striking  morphological  variation 
is  to  be  expected ;  or,  put  otherwise,  the  fact  of  a 
greater  variational  tendency  in  the  male  is  the 
outcome  of  a  constitutional  inclination  to  de- 
structive metabolism.  It  is  a  general  law  in  the 
courtship  of  the  sexes  that  the  male  seeks  the 
female.  The  secondary  sexual  characters  of  the 
male  are  developed  with  puberty,  and  in  some 
cases  these  sexual  distinctions  come  and  go  with 
the  breeding  season.  What  we  know  as  physio- 
logical energy  is  the  result  of  the  dissociation  of 
atoms  in  the  organism;  expressions  of  energy 
are  the  accompaniment  of  the  katabolic  or 
breaking-up  process,  and  the  brighter  color  of 
the  male,  especially  at  the  breeding  season,  re- 
sults from  the  fact  that  the  waste  products  of  the 
katabolism  are  deposited  as  pigments. 

When  we  compare  the  sexes  of  mankind  mor- 
phologically, we  find  a  greater  tendency  to  varia- 
tion in  man:' 

All  the  secondary  sexual  characters  of  man  are  highly 

'  Professor  Carl  Pearson,  in  a  severe,  not  to  say  unmannerly, 
paper  ("Variation  in  Man  and  Woman,"  The  Chances  of  Death, 
Vol.  I),  has  criticized  some  of  the  results  of  the  physical  anthro- 
pologists and  attempted  to  show  that  the  theory  of  the  greater 
variability  of  man  has  no  legs  to  stand  on.  His  argument  is 
mainly  statistical,  and  affects,  perhaps,  some  of  the  details  of  the 
theory,  but  not,  I  think,  the  theory  as  a  whole. 


1 8  Sex  and  Society 

variable,  even  within  the  Hmits  of  the  same  race ;  and  they 

differ    much    in    the    several    races Numerous 

measurements  carefully  made  of  the  stature,  the  circum- 
ference of  the  neck  and  chest,  the  length  of  the  backbone 
and  of  the  arms,  in  various  races  ....  nearly  all  show 
that  the  males  diflfer  much  more  from  one  another  than  do 
the  females.  This  fact  indicates  that,  as  far  as  these 
characters  are  concerned,  it  is  the  male  which  has  been 
chiefly  modified,  since  the  several  races  diverged  from 
their  common  stock. ^ 

Morphologically  the  development  of  man  is 
more  accentuated  than  that  of  woman.  Anthro- 
pologists, indeed,  regard  woman  as  intermediate 
in  development  between  the  child  and  the  man. 

The  outlines  of  the  adult  female  cranium  are  inter- 
mediate between  those  of  the  child  and  the  adult  man; 
they  are  softer,  more  graceful  and  delicate,  and  the  apo- 
physes and  ridges  for  the  attachment  of  muscles  are  less 
pronounced,  ....  the  forehead  is  ...  .  more  per- 
pendicular, to  such  a  degree  that  in  a  group  of  skulls  those 
of  the  two  sexes  have  been  mistaken  for  different  types; 
the  superciliary  ridges  and  the  glabella  are  less  developed, 
often  not  at  all;  the  crown  is  higher  and  more  horizontal; 
the  brain  weight  and  cranial  capacity  are  less ;  the  mastoid 
apophyses,  the  inion,  the  styloid  apophyses,  and  the  con- 
dyles of  the  occipital  are  of  less  volume,  the  zygomatic  and 
alveolar  arches  are  more  regular.^ 

Wagner  decided  that  the  brain  of  a  woman, 

'  Darwin,  loc.  cii.,  chap.  19. 
'  P.  Topinard,  Elements  d'anthropologie  gSnerale,  p.  253. 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes  19 

taken  as  a  whole,  is  uniformly  in  a  more  or  less 
less  embryonic  condition.  Huschke  says  that 
woman  is  always  a  growing  child,  and  that  her 
brain  departs  from  the  infantile  type  no  more 
than  the  other  portions  of  her  body.'  Weis- 
bach""  pointed  out  that  the  limits  of  variation 
in  the  skull  of  man  are  greater  than  in  that  of 
woman. 

Several  observers  have  recorded  the  opinion 
that  women  of  dolichocephalic  races  are  more 
brachycephalic,  and  women  of  brachycephylic 
races  more  dolicocephalic,  than  the  men  of  the 
same  races.  If  this  is  true ,  it  is  a  remarkable  con- 
firmation of  the  conservative  tendency  of  woman. 
"I  have  thought  for  several  years  that  woman 
was,  in  a  general  way,  less  dolichocephalic  in 
dolichocephalic  races,  and  less  brachycephalic 
in  brachycephalic  races,  and  that  she  had  a  ten- 
dency to  approach  the  typical  median  form  of 
humanity."^  The  skin  of  woman  is  without 
exception  of  a  lighter  shade  than  that  of  man, 
even  among  the  dark  races.  This  cannot  be  due 
to  less  exposure,  since  the  women  and  men  are 
equally  exposed  among  the  uncivilized  races,  but 

^  Delaunay,  loc.  cit. 

»  Weisbach,  "Der  deutsche  Weiberschadel,"  Archiv  fur  An- 
thropologic, Vol.  Ill,  p.  66. 
3  Topinard,  loc.  cit.,  p.  375. 


20  Sex  and  Society 

is  due  to  the  same  causes  as  the  more  brilliant 
plumage  of  male  birds. 

The  form  of  woman  is  rounder  and  less  vari- 
able than  that  of  man,  and  art  has  been  able 
to  produce  a  more  nearly  ideal  figure  of  woman 
than  of  man;  at  the  same  time,  the  bones  of 
woman  weigh  less  with  reference  to  body  weight 
than  the  bones  of  man,  and  both  these  facts 
indicate  less  variation  and  more  constitutional 
passivity  in  woman.  The  trunk  of  woman  is 
slightly  longer  than  that  of  man, '  and  her  abdo- 
men is  relatively  more  prominent,  and  is  so 
represented  in  art.  In  these  respects  she  resem- 
bles the  child  and  the  lower  races,  i.  e.,  the  less 
developed  forms.  ^  Ranke  states  that  the  typi- 
cal adult  male  form  is  characterized  by  a  rela- 
tively shorter  trunk,  relatively  longer  arms,  legs, 
hands,  and  feet,  and  relatively  to  the  long  upper 
arms  and  thighs  by  still  longer  forearms  and 
lower  legs,  and  relatively  to  the  whole  upper 
extremity  by  a  still  longer  lower  extremity ;  while 
the  t}^ical  female  form  approaches  the  infantile 
condition  in  having  a  relatively  longer  trunk, 
shorter  arms,  legs,  hands,  and  feet;  relatively  to 

'  Topinard,  loc.  cit.,  p.  1066. 

»  Topinard's  figures  {loc.  cit.,  p.  1066)  show,  however,  that  the 
Eskimos  and  the  Tasmanians  have  a  shorter  trunk  than  the  Euro- 
peans. 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes  21 

short  upper  arms  still  shorter  forearms,  and 
relatively  to  short  thighs  still  shorter  lower  legs, 
and  relatively  to  the  whole  short  upper  extremity' 
a  still  shorter  lower  extremity — a  very  striking 
evidence  of  the  ineptitude  of  woman  for  the 
expenditure  of  physiological  energy  through 
motor  action.^ 

The  strength  of  woman,  on  the  other  hand, 
her  capacity  for  motion,  and  her  muscular  me- 
chanical aptitude  are  far  inferior  to  that  of  man. 
Tests  of  strength  made  on  2,300  students  of  Yale 
University^  and  on  1,600  women  of  Oberlin 
College"*  show  the  mean  relation  of  the  strength 
of  the  sexes,  expressed  in  kilograms : 

1  J.  Ranke,  "Beitrage  zur  physischen  Anthropologic  der 
Bayern,"  Beitrage  zur  Anthropologie  utid  Urgeschichte  Bayerns, 
Vol.  VIII,  p.  65. 

2  Morphological  differences  are  less  in  low  than  in  high 
races,  and  the  less  civilized  the  race,  the  less  is  the  physical  differ- 
ence of  the  sexes.  In  the  higher  races  the  men  are  both  more 
unlike  one  another  than  in  the  lower  races,  and  at  the  same  time 
more  unlike  the  women  of  their  own  race.  But,  while  some  of 
these  differences  may  probably  be  justly  set  down  as  congenital, 
as  representing  varieties  of  the  species  which  have  passed  through 
different  variational  experiences,  they  are  doubtless  mainlj^  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  activities  of  men  and  women  are  more  unlike 
in  the  higher  than  in  the  lower  races. 

3  J.  W.  Seaver,  Anthropometric  Table,  1889. 
4Delphine  Hanna    Anthropometric  Table,   1891. 


22 


Sex  and  Society 


Back 

Legs 

Right  Forearm 

Men 

1530 
54-0 

186.0 
76.5 

56.0 
21.4 

The  average  weight  of  the  men  was  63 .  i  kilo- 
grams, and  of  the  women  51  kilograms;  and, 
making  deduction  for  this,  the  strength  of  the 
men  is  still  not  less  than  twice  as  great  as  that  of 
the  women.  The  anthropometric  committee 
reported  to  the  British  Association  in  1883  that 
women  are  little  more  than  half  as  strong  as 
men. 

The  first  field  day  of  the  Vassar  College  Ath- 
letic Association  was  held  November  9,  1895, 
and  a  comparison  of  the  records  of  some  of  the 
events  with  those  of  similar  events  at  Yale  Uni- 
versity in  the  corresponding  year  gives  us  a  basis 
of  comparison :' 

'  Where  a  large  body  of  men  are  intensely  interested  in  a 
competition,  as  over  against  a  small  body  of  women  not  seriously 
interested,  any  comparison  of  results  is  almost  out  of  the  ques- 
tion. But  the  superior  physical  strength  of  man  is,  I  believe, 
disputed  in  no  quarter.  The  Vassar  records  have  been  improved 
in  succeeding  years  (the  loo-yard  dash  was  13  seconds  in  1904, 
the  running  high  jump  4  feet  2  J  inches  in  1905,  the  running  broad 
jump  14  feet  6J  inches  in  1904),  but  Miss  Harriet  Isabel  Ballan- 
tine,  director  of  the  Vassar  College  Gymnasium,  wTites  me:  "I 
do  not  believe  women  can  ever,  no  matter  what  the  training,  ap- 
proach man  in  their  physical  achievements;  and  I  see  no  reason 
why  thev  should." 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes 


23 


Vassar 


1 00-yard  dash 

Running  broad  jump. 
Running  high  jump . . 
220-yard  dash 


i5i  sec. 
II  ft.  5  in. 
4  ft. 
36J  sec. 


Miss  Thompson,  whose  results  were  obtained 
in  a  psychological  laboratory,  concludes  that 
in  reactions  where  strength  is  involved  men  are 
clearly  superior  to  women,  and  this  is  the  only 
respect  in  which  she  finds  a  marked  difference : 

Motor  ability  in  most  of  its  forms  is  better  in  men  than 
in  women.  In  strength,  rapidity  of  movement,  and  rate 
of  fatigue  they  have  a  very  decided  advantage.  These 
three  forms  of  superiority  are  probably  all  expressions  of 
one  and  the  same  fact — the  greater  muscular  strength  of 
men.  Men  are  very  slightly  superior  to  women  in  pre- 
cision of  movement.  This  fact  is  probably  also  connected 
with  their  superior  muscular  force.  In  the  formation  of  a 
new  co-ordination  women  are  superior.  The  superiority 
of  men  in  muscular  strength  is  so  well  known  that  it  is 
a  universally  accepted  fact.  There  has  been  more  or 
less  dispute  as  to  which  sex  displayed  greater  manual 
dexterity.  According  to  the  present  results,  that  depends 
on  what  is  meant  by  manual  dexterity.  If  it  means  the 
ability  to  make  very  delicate  and  minutely  controlled 
movements,  then  it  is  slightly  better  in  men.  If  it  means 
ability  to  co-ordinate  movements  rapidly  to  unfore- 
seen stimuli,  it  is  clearly  better  in  women.' 

'  Helen  B.  Thompson,  Psychological  Norms  in  Men  and 
Women,  p.  169.     "Wliile  it  is  improbable  that  all  the  difference 


24  Sex  and  Society 

We  have  no  other  than  a  utilitarian  basis  for 
judging  some  variations  advantageous  and 
others  disadvantageous.  We  can  estimate  them 
only  with  reference  to  activity  and  the  service  or 
disservice  to  the  individual  and  society  implied 
in  them,  and  a  given  variation  must  receive  very 
different  valuations  at  different  historical  periods 
in  the  development  of  the  race.  Departures 
from  the  normal  are  simply  nature's  way  of  "  try- 
ing conclusions."  The  variations  which  have 
proved  of  life-saving  advantage  have  in  the 
course  of  time  become  typical,  while  the  individ- 
uals in  which  unfavorable  variations,  or  defects, 
have  occurred  have  not  survived  in  the  struggle 
for  existence.  Morphologically  men  are  the 
more  unstable  element  of  society,  and  this  insta- 
bility expresses  itself  in  the  two  extremes  of 
genius  and  idiocy.  Genius  in  general  is  corre- 
lated with  an  excessive  development  in  brain- 
growth,  stopping  dangerously  near  the  line  of 
hypertrophy  and  insanity;  while  microcephaly 
is  a  variation  in  the  opposite  direction,  in  which 

of  the  sexes  with  regard  to  physical  strength  can  be  attributed 
to  persistent  difference  in  training,  it  is  certain  that  a  large  part 
of  the  difference  is  explicable  on  this  ground.  The  great  strength 
of  savage  women  and  the  rapid  increase  in  strength  of  civilized 
women  wherever  systematic  physical  training  has  been  intro- 
duced both  show  the  importance  of  this  factor." — Ihid.,  p.  178. 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes 


25 


idiocy  results  from  arrested  development  of  the 
brain,  usually  through  premature  closing  of  the 
sutures;  and  both  these  variations  occur  more 
frequently  in  men  than  in  women.  There  is  also 
evidence  that  defects  in  general  are  more  fre- 
quent in  men  than  in  women. 

A  committee  reported  to  the  British  Associa- 
tion for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  in  1894,' 
that  of  some  50,000  children  (26,287  boys,  and 
23,713  girls)  seen  personally  by  Dr.  Francis 
Warner  (1892-94)  8,941  were  found  defective 
in  some  respect.  Of  these,  19  per  cent. 
(5,112)  were  boys,  and  16  per  cent.  (3,829)  were 
girls. 

An  examination  of  1,345  idiots  and  imbeciles 
in  Scotland  by  Mitchell  showed  the  following 
distribution  of  the  sexes: 


Male 

Female 

Male 

Female. 

Idiots 

Imbeciles 

430 
321 

284 
31G 

or  IGG 

or  I  GO 

to  66.0 
to  96 . 5 

showing  that   "the  excess  of  males   is   much 
greater  among  idiots  than  among  imbeciles;  in 


'  "Physical  and  Mental  Deviations  from  the  Normal  among 
Children  in  Public  Elementary  and  Other  Schools,"  Report  of 
the  Sixty-fourth  Meeting  of  the  British  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Science,  1894,  pp.  434  ff. 


26  Sex  and  Society 

other  words,  that  the  excess  of  males  is  most 
marked  in  the  graver  forms  of  the  disease.'" 

A  census  of  the  insane  in  Prussia  in  1880 
showed  that  9,809  males  and  7,827  females  were 
bom  idiots.  Koch's  statistics  of  insanity  show 
that  in  idiots  there  is  almost  always  a  majority 
of  males,  in  the  insane,  a  majority  of  females. 
But  the  majority  of  male  idiots  is  so  much 
greater  than  the  majority  of  female  insane  that 
when  idiots  and  insane  are  classed  together 
there  remains  a  majority  of  males. ^  Insanity  is, 
however,  more  frequently  induced  by  external 
conditions,  and  less  dependent  on  imperfect  or 
arrested  cerebral  development.  Mayr  has 
shown  from  statistics  of  Bavaria  that  insanity 
is  infrequent  before  the  sixteenth  year ;  and  even 
before  the  twentieth  year  the  number  of  insane 
is  not  considerable.^  In  insanity  the  chances 
of  recovery  of  the  female  are  greater  than  those 
of  the  male,  and  mortality  is  higher  among 
insane  men  than  among  insane  women.  There 
is  practical  agreement  among  pathologists  on 

I  A.  Mitchell,  "Some  Statistics  of  Idiocy,"  Edinburgh  Medi- 
cal Journal,  Vol.  XI,  p.  639. 

^  "Koch's  Statistics  of  Insanity,"  Journal  of  Mental  Science, 
Vol.  XXVI,  p.  435- 

3  Mayr,  Die  Verbreitung  der  Blindheit,  der  Taiibstummheit,  des 
Blodsinns  und  des  Irrsinns  in  Baiern,  p.  100. 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes  27 

this  point. ^  Campbell  points  out  in  detail^  that 
the  male  sex  is  more  liable  than  the  female  to 
gross  lesions  of  the  nervous  system — a  fact 
which  he  attributes  to  the  greater  variability 
of  the  male. 

An  excess  of  all  other  anatomical  anomalies, 
except  cleft  palate,  is  reported  among  males. 
Manley  reports  that  of  33  cases  of  harelip  treated 
by  him  only  6  were  females.^  It  appears  also 
that  supernumerary  digits  are  more  frequent 
in  males.  Wilder"*  has  recorded  152  cases  of 
individuals  with  supernumerary  digits,  of  whom 
86  were  males,  39  females,  and  27  of  unknown 
sex.  A  similar  relation,  according  to  Bruce, 
exists   in   regard    to    supernumerary   nipples.^ 

I  Cf.  Campbell,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  146  ff.  2  ihid.,  pp.  132-40. 

3  J.  H.  Manley,  "Harelip,"  International  Medical  Journal, 
Vol.  II,  pp.  209  ff. 

4  Communications  of  the  Massachusetts  Medical  Society,  Vol. 
II,  No.  3,  p.  9. 

5  Of  the  3,956  individuals  examined,  1,645  were  males,  and 
of  these  47  (2.857  P^''  cent.)  presented  supernumerary  nipples. 
Of  the  3,956  individuals  2,311  were  females,  and  of  these  14 
(0.605  percent.)  presented  supernumerary  mammae  or  nipples. 
That  is,  this  anomaly  was  found  to  occur  more  than  four 
times  as  frequently  in  men  as  in  women. — J.  Mitchell  Bruce, 
"On  Supernumerary  Nipples  and  Mammae,"  Journal  of  Anatomy 
and  Physiology,  Vol.  XIII,  p.  432. 

Leichtenstern,  however,  whose  investigations  were  of  earlier 
date  than  those  of  Bruce,  says  that  supernumerary  mammae  occur 
with  about  equal  frequency  in  the  two  sexes. — Leichtenstern, 


28  Sex  and  Society 

Muscular  abnormalities,  monstrosities,  deaf- 
mutism,  clubfoot,  and  transposition  of  viscera 
are  also  reported  as  of  commoner  occurrence  in 
men  than  in  women.'  Lombroso  states  that 
congenital  criminals  are  more  frequently  male 
than  female.^  Cunningham  noted  an  eighth 
(true)  rib  in  14  of  70  subjects  examined-  It 
occurred  7  times  in  males  and  7  times  in  females, 
but  the  number  of  females  examined  was  twice 
as  large  as  the  number  of  males. ^  The  reports 
of  the  registrar-general  show  that  for  the  years 
1884-88,  inclusive,  the  deaths  from  congenital 
defects  (spina  bifida,  imperforate  anus,  cleft 
palate,  harelip,  etc.)  were,  taking  the  average 
of  the  five  years,  49.6  per  million  of  the  persons 
living  in  England  for  the  male  sex,  and  44.2 
for  the  female.'* 

It  has  already  been  noted  as  a  general  rule 
throughout  nature  that  the  male  seeks  the  female, 

"  Ueber  das  Vorkommcn  und  die  Bedeutung  supemvunerarer 
Briiste  und  Brustwarzen,"  Virchow's  Archiv  jiir  pathologische 
Anatomie,  Vol.  LXXIII,  p.  238. 

I  Ellis,  loc.  cU.  (4th  ed.),  pp.  413  ff. 

-  Lombroso  e  Ferrero,  La  donna  delinquente,  chap.  12. 

3  Hyrtl,  of  Vienna,  however,  examined  thirty  subjects,  and 
found  the  anomaly  in  question  only  three  times,  and  exclusively 
in  females.  He  attributed  it  to  tight  lacing. — D.  J.  Cunningham, 
"The  Occasional  Eighth  True  Rib  in  Man,"  Journal  of  Anatomy 
and  Physiology,  Vol.  XXIV,  p.  127. 

4  H.  Campbell,  loc.  cU.,  p.  133. 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes  29 

and  physicians  generally  believe  that  men  are 
sexually  more  active  than  women/  though 
woman's  need  of  reproduction  is  greater,^  and 
celibacy  unquestionably  impresses  the  char- 
acter of  women  more  deeply  than  that  of  man. 
Additional  evidence  of  the  greater  sexual  activity  ^ '  '-'"•'  - 
of  man  is  furnished  by  the  overwhelmingly  largec^'-u/;^/ 
proportion  of  the  various  forms  of  sexual  per- 
version reported  by  psychiatrists  in  the  male  sex. 

Pathological  variations  do  not  become  fixed 
in  the  species,  because  of  their  disadvantageous 
nature,  but  their  excess  in  the  male  is,  as  we 
have  seen  in  the  case  of  variations  which  have 
become  fixed,  an  expression  of  the  more 
energetic  somatic  habit  of  the  male. 

A  very  noticeable  expression  of  the  anabolism 
of  woman  is  her  tendency  to  put  on  fat. 
"Women,  as  a  class,  show  a  greater  tendency  to 
put  on  fat  than  men,  and  the  tendency  is  particu- 
larly well  marked  at  puberty,  when  some  girls 
become  phenomenally  stout.  "^  The  distinctive 
beauty  of  the  female  form  is  due  to  the  storing 
of  adipose  tissue,  and  the  form  even  of  very 

1  Krafft-Ebing,  Psychopathia  Sexualis,  p.  14;  Campbc-ll,  he. 
cit.,  pp.  199-215;    PIoss,  loc.  cit..  Vol.  I,  p.  313. 

2  A.  Hegar,  Der  Geschlechtstrieb,  p.  7. 
^H.  Campbell,  loc.  cit.,  p.  115. 


3° 


Sex  and  Society 


slender  women  is  gracefully  rounded  in  com- 
parison with  that  of  man.  Bischoff  found  the 
following  relation  between  muscle  and  fat  in  a 
man  of  33,  a  woman  of  22,  and  a  boy  of  16,  all 
of  whom  died  accidentally  and  in  good  physical 
condition : 


Man 

Woman 

Boy 

Muscle 

Fat 

41.18 
18.2 

35-8 
28.2 

44.2 
13-9 

The  steatopyga  of  the  women  of  some  races 
and  the  accumulation  of  adipose  tissue  late  in 
life  are  quasi-pathological  expressions  of  this 
tendency. 

In  tracing  the  transition  from  lower  to  higher 
forms  of  life,  we  find  a  great  change  in  the  nature 
of  the  blood,  or  what  answers  to  the  blood,  and 
the  constitution  of  the  blood  is  some  index  of 
the  intensity  of  the  metabolic  processes  going 
on  within  the  organism.  The  sap  of  plants  is 
thin  and  watery,  corresponding  with  the  pre- 
ponderant anabolism  of  the  plant.  "Blood  is 
a  peculiar  kind  of  sap,"  and  there  is  almost 
as  much  difference  between  this  sap  in  warm- 
blooded and  cold-blooded  animals  as  between 
the  latter  and  plants.  Rich,  red  blood  charac- 
terizes the  forms  of  life  fitted  for  activity  and 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes  31 

bursts  of  energy.  In  his  exhaustive  work  on 
the  blood  Hayem  has  given  a  summary  of  the 
resuks  of  the  investigations  of  chemists  and 
physiologists  on  the  differences  in  the  composi- 
tion of  the  blood  in  the  two  sexes.  Contrary  to 
the  assertion  of  Robin,  Hayem  finds  that  the 
white  blood-corpuscles  are  not  more  numerous 
in  women  than  in  men,  and  he  also  states  that 
the  number  of  haematoblasts  is  the  same  in  the 
two  sexes.  All  chemists  are  agreed,  however, 
that  the  number  of  red  corpuscles  is  greater  in 
men  than  in  women.  Nasse  found  in  man 
0.05824  of  iron  to  100,  and  in  woman  only 
0.0499.  Becquerel  and  Rodier  give  0.0565  for 
man,  0.05 11  for  woman,  and  Schmidt,  Scherer, 
and  others  give  similar  results.  Welcker  (using 
a  chronometer)  found  between  the  corpuscles 
of  man  and  woman  the  relation  of  5  to  4. 7,  and 
Hayem  confirmed  this  by  numeration.  Cadet 
found  in  woman  on  the  average  4 . 9  million  cor- 
puscles per  cubic  millimeter,  and  in  man  5 . 2 
million.  More  recently  Korniloff,  using  still 
another  method — the  spectroscope  of  Vierordt— 
has  reached  about  the  same  result.  The  pro- 
portion of  red  blood-corpuscles  varies  according 
to  individual  constitution,  race,  and  sex.  In 
robust  men  Lacanu  found  136  red  corpuscles  in 


32  Sex  and  Society 

i,ooo;  in  weak  men,  only  ii6  in  i,ooo;  in  robust 
women,  only  126  in  1,000;  and  in  weak  women, 
117.'  Professor  Jones  has  taken  the  specific 
gravity  of  the  blood  of  above  1,500  individuals 
of  all  ages  and  of  both  sexes."  An  examination 
of  his  charts  shows  that  the  specific  gravity  of 
the  male  is  higher  than  that  of  the  female  between 
the  ages  of  16  and  68.  Between  the  ages  of 
16  and  45  the  average  specific  gravity  of  the 
male  is  about  1,058,  and  that  of  the  female 
about  1,054 .5.  At  45  years  the  specific  gravity 
of  the  male  begins  to  fall  rapidly  and  that  of  the 
female  to  rise  rapidly,  and  at  55  they  are  almost 
equal;  but  the  male  remains  slightly  higher 
until  68  years,  when  it  falls  below  that  of  the 
female.  The  period  of  marked  difference  in 
the  specific  gravity  of  the  blood  is  thus  seen  to  be 
coincident  with  the  period  of  menstruation  in 
the  female.  A  chart  constructed  by  Leichten- 
stern,  based  upon  observations  on  191  individ- 
uals and  showing  variations  in  the  amount  of 
haemoglobin  with  age,  is  also  reproduced  by 
Professor  Jones,  suggesting  that  the  variations 

1  J.  Hayem,  Du  sang  et  de  scs  alterations  anatomiques,  pp.  184, 
185. 

2  E.  Lloyd  Jones,  "  Further  Observations  on  the  Specific 
Gravity  of  the  Blood  in  Health  and  Disease,"  Journal  of  Physi- 
ology, Vol.  XII,  pp.  299  ff. 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes  33 

in  specific  gravity  of  the  blood  with  age  and  sex 
are  closely  related  to  variations  in  the  amount 
of  haemoglobin.  Leichtenstern  states  that  the 
excess  in  men  of  haemoglobin  is  7  per  cent, 
until  the  tenth  year,  8  per  cent,  between  11  and 
50  years,  and  5  per  cent,  after  the  fiftieth  year. ' 
Jones  states  further^  that  the  specific  gravity  is 
higher  in  persons  of  the  upper  classes  and  lower 
in  the  poorer  classes.  Observations  of  boys  who 
were  inmates  of  workhouses  gave  a  mean  specific 
gravity  of  1,052 .8  and  on  schoolboys  a  mean  of 
1,056,  whUe  among  the  undergraduate  students 
of  Cambridge  University  he  found  a  mean  of 
1,059.5.  Several  men  of  very  high  specific 
gravity  in  the  last  group  had  distinguished  them- 
selves in  athletics.  "Workhouse  boys  are  in 
most  cases  of  poor  physique,  and  one  can  hardly 
find  a  better  antithesis  than  the  general  type  of 
physique  common  among  the  athletic  members 
of  such  a  university  as  Cambridge."^  There  is 
no  more  conclusive  evidence  of  an  organic  dif- 
ference between  man  and  woman  than  these 
tests  of  the  blood.  They  permit  us  to  associate 
a  high  specific  gravity,  red  corpuscles,  plentiful 
haemoglobin,  and  a  katabolic  constitution. 

'  O.    Leichtenstern,   Untersuchungen    iiher   den  Haemoglobul- 
ingehalt  des  Blutes,  p.  38. 

»  Loc.  cit.,  pp.  316  flf.  3  Ibid.,  pp.  316  ff. 


34  Sex  and  Society 

A  comparison  of  the  waste  products  of  the 
body  and  of  the  quantity  of  materials  consumed 
in  the  metaboHc  process  indicates  a  relatively 
larger  consumption  of  energy  by  man.  It  is 
stated  that  man  produces  more  urine  than 
woman  in  the  following  proportion:  men,  i,ooo 
to  2,000  grams  daily;  women,  1,000  to  1,400 
grams.  As  age  advances,  the  amount  dimin- 
ishes absolutely  and  relatively  in  proportion  to 
the  diminution  of  the  energy  of  the  metabolic 
process.  A  table  prepared  from  adults  of  both 
sexes,  twenty-five  years  of  age,  of  the  average 
weight  of  sixty  kilograms,  shows  a  larger  pro- 
portion both  of  inorganic  and  organic  sub- 
stances in  the  urine  of  men.'  Milne  Edwards 
has  found  that  the  bones  of  the  male  are  slightly 
richer  in  inorganic  substances  than  those  of 
the  female.^ 

The  lung  capacity  of  women  is  less,  and  they 
consume  less  oxygen  and  produce  less  carbonic 
acid  than  men  of  equal  weight,  although  the 
number  of  respirations  is  slightly  higher  than  in 
man.  On  this  account  women  suffer  depriva- 
tion of  air  more  easily  than  men.     They  are  not 

'  E.  Bourgoin,  art.  "Urines,"  Diclionnaire  encyclopedique  des 
sciences  medicahs. 

'  Delaunay,  loc.  cit. 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes  35 

so  easily  suffocated,  and  are  reported  to  endure 
charcoal  fumes  better,  and  live  in  high  altitudes 
where  men  cannot  endure  the  deprivation  of 
oxygen.'  The  number  of  deaths  from  chloro- 
form is  reckoned  as  from  two  to  four  times  as 
great  in  males  as  in  females,  and  this  although 
chloroform  is  used  in  childbirth.  Children  also 
bear  chloroform  well.''  Women,  like  children, 
require  more  sleep  normally  than  men,  but "  Mac- 
farlane  states  that  they  can  better  bear  the  loss 
of  sleep,  and  most  physicians  will  agree  with 

him One  of  the  greatest  difficulties  we 

have  to  contend  with  in  nervous  men  is  sleep- 
lessness, a  result,  no  doubt,  of  excessive  katab- 
olism."^  Loss  of  sleep  is  a  strain  which,  like 
gestation,  women  are  able  to  meet  because  of 
their  anabolic  surplus.  The  fact  that  women 
undertake  changes  more  reluctantly  than  men, 
but  adjust  themselves  to  changed  fortunes  more 
readily,  is  due  to  the  same  metabolic  difference. 
Man  has,  in  short,  become  somatically  a  more 
specialized  animal  than  woman,  and  feels  more 
keenly  any  disturbance  of  normal  conditions, 

1  Delaunay,  loc.  cit.;  Ploss,  Das  Weib,  Vol.  I,  pp.  36,  37;  Ellis, 
loc.  cit.,  pp.  231  ff. 

2  Ellis,  loc.  cit.,  p.  252. 

3  Campbell,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  117  and  119. 


36  Sex  and  Society 

while  he  has  not  the  same  physiological  surplus 
as  woman  with  which  to  meet  the  disturbance. 
Lower  forms  of  life  have  the  remarkable  qual- 
ity of  restoring  a  lost  organ,  and  of  living  as 
separate  individuals  if  divided.  This  power 
gradually  diminishes  as  we  ascend  the  scale  of 
life,  and  is  lost  by  the  higher  forms.  It  is  a 
remarkable  fact,  however,  that  the  lower  human 
races,  the  lower  classes  of  society,  women  and 
children,  show  something  of  the  same  quality  in 
their  superior  tolerance  of  surgical  disease.  The 
indifference  of  savage  races  to  wounds  and  loss 
of  blood  has  everywhere  been  remarked  by 
ethnologists.  Dr.  Bartels  has  formulated  the 
law  of  resistance  to  surgical  and  traumatic  treat- 
ment in  the  following  sentence:  "The  higher 
the  race,  the  less  the  tolerance,  and  the  lower  the 
culture-condition  in  a  given  race,  the  greater 
the  tolerance."'  The  greater  disvulnerability 
of  women  is  generally  recognized  by  surgeons. 
The  following  figures  from  Lawrie,  ]Malgaigne, 
and  Fenwick  are  representative:'' 

•  Max  Bartels,  "Culturelle  und  Rassenunterschiede  in  Bezug 
auf  die  Wundkrankheiten,"  Zeitschrift  jur  Ethnologic,  Vol.  XX, 
p.  183. 

"  Legouest,  art.  "Amputations,"  Dictionnaire  encyclopedique 
des  sciences  medi-cales. 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes  37 

LAWRIE    (GLASGOW) 


Men 

Deaths 

Women 

Deaths 

Pathological  amputations 

Traumatic  amputations 

no  cases 
106     " 

29 
59 

41  cases 
14     " 

7 
4 

Total 

216  cases 

88 

55  cases 

II 

or,  40 .  74  deaths 
per  100 

20   deaths   per 
100 

A  diilerence  of  20.  74  per  cent,  in  favor  of  women. 
MALGAIGNE  (HOSPITALS  OF  PARIS) 


Men 

Deaths 

Women 

Deaths 

Major   pathological  amputa- 
tions   

280  cases 

106  cases 
165      " 
73      " 

138 

9 
107 

13 

98  cases 

40  cases 

17     " 

10     " 

44 

2 

10 

0 

Minor   pathological   amputa- 
tions   

Major  traumatic  amputations 
Minor  traumatic  amputations 

Total 

624  cases 

or,  37.98  d 
per  100 

267 
eaths 

165  cases 

34.18  deat 
100 

56 
tis  per 

A  difference  of  3 . 8  per  cent,  in  favor  of  women. 
FENWICK  (NEWCASTLE,  GLASGOW,  EDINBURGH) 


Men 

Deaths 

Women 

Deaths 

Amputations 

304  cases 

86 

64  cases 

16 

or,  27.86  deaths 
per  100 

25    deaths    per 
100 

A  difference  of  2 .  86  per  cent,  in  favor  of  women. 


1.38  0  81. 


38  Sex  and  Society 

TOTAL  FOR  THE  THREE  SERIES 


Men 

Deaths 

Women 

Deaths 

Amputations 

1 144  cases 

441 

284  cases 

83 

or,  38.56  deaths 
per  100 

29.29  deaths  per 
100 

A  difference  of  9  .27  per  cent,  in  favor  of  women. 

Legouest  states  in  the  same  article  that  the 
lowest  mortality  of  all  is  in  children  from  5  to 
15  years  of  age.  Ellis  quotes  a  passage  from  a 
paper  read  by  Lombroso  at  the  International 
Congress  of  Experimental  Psychology  held  in 
London : 

Billroth  experimented  on  women  when  attempting  a 
certain  operation  (excision  of  the  pylorus)  for  the  first 
time,  judging  that  they  were  less  sensitive  and  therefore 
more  disvulnerahle,  i.  e.,  better  able  to  resist  pain.  Carle 
assured  me  that  women  would  let  themselves  be  operated 
upon  almost  as  though  their  flesh  were  an  alien  thing. 
Giordano  told  me  that  even  the  pains  of  childbirth  caused 
relatively  Httle  suffering  to  women,  in  spite  of  their  appre- 
hensions. Dr.  Martini,  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
dentists  of  Turin,  has  informed  me  of  the  amazement  he 
has  felt  at  seeing  women  endure  more  easily  and  coura- 
geously than  men  every  kind  of  dental  operation.  Mela, 
too,  has  found  that  men  will,  under  such  circumstances, 
faint  oftener  than  women.' 

The  same  tolerance  of  pain  and  misery  in 

'  Ellis,  loc.  cit.,  p.  132. 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes 


39 


women  is  shown  by  an  examination  of  the  num- 
ber of  male  and  female  suicides  from  physical 
suffering.  Von  Oettingen  states  that  in  30,000 
cases  the  percentage  of  suicides  from  physical 
suffering  was  in  men  1 1 . 4,  in  women  1 1 . 3 ;'  and 
Lombroso,  following  Morselli,  gives  the  follow- 
ing table  representing  the  proportion  out  of  a 
hundred  suicides  of  each  sex  resulting  from  the 
same  cause  f 


Men 


Women 


Germany  (1852-61). 
Prussia  (1869-77). . . 
Saxony  (1875-78). . . 

Belgium 

France  (1873-78). .  . 

Italy  (1866-77) 

Vienna  (1851-59). . . 
Vienna  (1869-78) . . . 

Paris  (1851-59) 

Madrid  (1884) 


9.61 

8.08 

6.00 

7.00 

4.61 

6.21 

1-34 

0.84 

14.28 

13-56 

6.70 

8.50 

9  .20 

10.04 

7-73 

IO-37 

10.27 

II  .22 

31.81 

31-25 

But  these  figures  represent  the  numbers  of  sui- 
cides in  each  hundred  of  either  sex,  whereas  sui- 
cide is  three  to  four  times  as  frequent  among 
men  as  among  women,  and  the  absolute  propor- 
tion of  suicide  among  men  from  physical  pain  is, 
therefore,  overwhelmingly  great.  Still  more 
significant  is  a  table  given  by  Lombroso  show- 
ing the  percentage  of  suicides  from  want  :^ 

^  A.  von  Oettingen,  loc.  cit.,  p.  780. 

2  Lombroso  e  Ferrero,  loc.  cit.,  chap.  16. 


40 


Sex  and  Society 


Women 


Germany  (1852-61) 

Saxony  (1875-78) 

Belgium 

Italy  (1866-77) 

Italy  (1866-77)  (financial  reverses) 

Norway  ( 1 866-70) 

Vienna  (1851-59) 


But  the  excess  of  male  suicides  over  females 
is  so  great  that,  reckoned  absolutely,  about  one 
woman  to  seven  or  ten  men  is  driven  by  v^^ant  to 
take  her  life. 

Physical  suffering  and  want  are  among  the 
motives  which,  constitutional  differences  aside, 
would  appeal  with  about  the  same  force  to  the 
two  sexes.  But  the  great  excess  both  of  suicide 
(3  or  4  men  to  i  woman)  and  of  crime  (4  or  5 
men  to  i  woman)  in  men,  while  directly  condi- 
tioned by  a  manner  of  life  more  subject  to  vicis- 
situde and  catastrophe,  is  still  remotely  due  to 
the  male,  katabolic  tendency  which  has  his- 
torically eventuated  in  a  life  of  this  nature  in 
the  male. 

Woman  offers  in  general  a  greater  resistance 
to  disease  than  man.  The  following  table  from 
the  registrar-general's  report  for  1888'  gives  the 
mortality  in  England  per  million  inhabitants  at 


I  p.  xxi,  Table  F,  ciuoted  by  Cambell,  he.  cit.,  p.  124. 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes 


41 


all  ages  and  for  both  sexes  from  1854  to  1887  in 
a  group  of  diseases  chiefly  affecting  young 
children : 


Disease 

Smallpox 

Measles 

Scarlet  fever 

Diphtheria 

Croup 

Whooping-cough .... 
Diarrhoea,  dysenter}' 
Enteric  fever 


Year 


Male 


Female 


1854-87 
1848-87 
1859-85 
1859-87 
1848-87 
1848-87 
1848-87 
1869-87 


183 
426 

763 
157 
221 

451 
932 


738 
176 
192 

554 
835 

277 


or,  a  total  mortality  of  3,421  per  million  for  the 
males  and  3,328  for  the  females.  The  greater 
fatality  of  diphtheria  and  whooping-cough  in  the 
female  is  attributed  to  the  smaller  larynx  of  girls, 
and  to  their  habit  of  kissing.  In  diphtheria,  in- 
deed, the  number  of  girls  attacked  is  in  excess  of 
that  of  the  boys,  and  it  does  not  appear  that  their 
mortality  is  higher  when  this  is  considered.' 
Statistics  based  on  nearly  half  a  million  deaths 
from  scarlet  fever  in  England  and  Wales  (1859- 
85)  show  a  mean  annual  in  males  of  778,  and  in 
females  of  717,  per  million  living.^  Dr.  Farr 
reports  on  the  mortality  from  cholera  in  the 
epidemic  years  of  1849, 1854,  and  1866,  that 

'  B.  A.  Whitelegge,  "Milroy  Lectures  on  Changes  of  Type  in 
Epidemic  Diseases,"  British  Medical  Journal,  March  i8,   1893. 
2  A.  Newsholme,  Vital  Statistics,  3d  ed.,  p.  178. 


42  Sex  and  Society 

the  mean  mortality  from  all  causes  in  the  three  cholera 
years  was,  for  males,  19.3  in  excess,  for  females,  17  .0  in 
excess  of  the  average  mortality  to  10,000  living ;  so  females 

suffered  less  than  males The  mortality  is  higher 

in  boys  than  in  girls  at  all  ages  under  15 ;  at  the  ages  of 
reproduction,  25  to  45,  the  mortality  of  women,  many  of 
them  pregnant,  exceeds  the  mortality  of  men;  but  at 
the  ages  after  65  the  mortality  of  men  exceeds  the  mor- 
tality of  women.' 

Statistics  show  that  woman  is  more  susceptible 
to  many  diseases,  but  in  less  danger  than  man 
when  attacked,  because  of  her  anabolic  surplus, 
and  also  that  the  greatest  mortality  in  woman  is 
during  the  period  of  reproduction,  when  the 
specific  gravity  of  the  blood  is  low  and  her  ana- 
bolic surplus  small.  It  is  significant  also  that 
the  point  of  highest  mortality  from  disease  and 
of  the  highest  rate  of  suicide  in  the  female,  as 
compared  with  the  male,  falls  at  about  15  years, 
and  is  to  be  associated  with  the  rapid  physiologi- 
cal changes  preceding  that  time.^ 

The  numerical  relation  of  the  sexes  at  birth 
seems  to  be  more  variable  in  those  regions  where 
economic  conditions  and  social  usages  are  least 
settled,  but  in  civilized  countries  the  relation  is 
fairly  constant,  and  statistics  of  32  countries  and 

•  W.  Farr,  Vital  Staiistks,  p.  385. 

2  Mortality  from  cancer  is,  however,  much  higher  in  women 
than  in  men.     Newsholme,  loc.  cit.,  p.  208. 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes  43 

states  between  the  years  1865  and  1883  show 
that  to  every  100  girls  105  boys  are  born,  or 
including  stillborn,  100  girls  to  106.6  boys.^ 
But  the  mortality  of  male  children  so  much 
exceeds  that  of  female  that  at  the  age  of  five 
the  sexes  are  about  in  numerical  equilibrium; 
and  in  the  adult  population  of  all  European 
countries  the  average  numerical  relation  of  the 
sexes  is  reckoned  as  102 .  i  women  to  100  men. 
Von  Oettingen  gives  a  representative  table  ;^ 
compiled  from  statistics  of  eight  European 
countries,  showing  that  (omitting  the  stillborn) 
124.71  boys  to  100  girls  die  before  the  end  of 
the  first  year,  and  that  between  the  years  of  2 
and  5  the  proportion  is  102 .91  boys  to  100  girls; 
or,  about  25  per  cent,  excess  of  boys  in  the  first 
year,  and  3  per  cent,  in  the  years  between  i  and 
5.  In  the  intra-uterine  period  and  at  the  very 
threshold  of  life  the  mortality  of  males  is  still 
greater.  The  figures  of  Wappaeus  were  100 
stillborn  girls  to  140.3  boys;  Quetelet  gave 
the  proportion  as  100:133.5;  ^^^  the  statistics 
of  fourteen  European  countries  during  the  years 
1865-83  show  that  130.2  boys  were  stillborn  to 
every  100  girls.  ^     So  that,  while  more  boys  than 

I  Ploss,  Das  Weib,  Vol.  I,  p.  26. 
"  Von  Oettingen,  loc.  cit.,  p.  58. 
3  Ploss,  Das  Weib,  Vol,  I,  p.  207. 


44  Sex  and  Society 

girls  are  bom  living,  still  more  are  born  dead. 
That  this  astonishingly  high  mortality  is  due  in 
part  to  the  somewhat  larger  size  of  boys  at  birth 
and  the  narrowness  of  the  maternal  pelvis  is 
indicated  by  the  statement  of  Collins,  of  the 
Rotunda  Lying-in  Hospital,  Dublin,  that  within 
half  an  hour  after  birth  only  i  female  died  to 
1 6  males;  within  the  first  hour  2  females  to  19 
males;  and  within  the  first  6  hours,  7  females 
to  29  males.'  But  that  this  explanation  is  not 
sufficient  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  a  high  mortal- 
ity of  boys  extends  through  the  whole  of  the 
first  year,  and  through  five  years,  in  a  diminish- 
ing ratio,  and  also  that  the  tenacity  of  woman  on 
life,  as  will  be  show-n  immediately,  is  greater  at 
every  age  than  man's  except  during  a  period  of 
about  five  years  following  puberty.  ' '  There  must 
be,"  says  Ploss,  "some  cause  which  operates 
more  energetically  in  the  removal  of  male  than 
of  female  children  just  before  and  after  birth;'"' 
but,  besides  the  more  violent  movement  of  boys 
and  their  greater  size,  no  explanation  of  the 
cause  has  been  advanced  more  acceptably  than 
Haushofer's  teleological  one,  quoted  by  Ploss, 
that  Nature  wished  to  make  a  more  perfect  being 
of  man  and  therefore  threw  more  obstacles  in  his 
way.    A  satisfactory  explanation  is  found  if  we 

» Ellis,  loc.  cit.,  p.  432.  2  Ploss,  Das  Weib,  Vol.  I,  p.  206. 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes  45 

regard  the  young  female  as  more  anabolic,  and 
more  quiescent,  with  a  stored  surplus  of  nutri- 
ment by  which  in  the  helpless  and  critical  period 
of  change  from  intra-  to  extra-uterine  conditions 
it  is  able  to  get  its  adjustment  to  life.  The  con- 
structive phase  of  metabolism  has  prevailed  in 
them  even  during  fetal  life.  That  there  is  need 
of  a  surplus  of  nutrition  in  the  child  at  birth,  or 
that  a  surplus  will  stand  it  in  good  stead,  is  indi- 
cated by  the  results  of  the  weighing  of  children 
communicated  by  Winckel  to  the  Gynaeco- 
logical Society  in  Berlin  in  1862.  Winckel 
weighed  100  new-born  children,  56  boys  and  44 
girls,  showing  that  birth  was  uniformly  followed 
by  a  loss  of  weight.  The  average  diminution 
was  about  108  grams  the  first  day,  and  but  little 
less  the  second  day.  At  the  end  of  five  days 
the  loss  was  220  grams,  six- sevenths  of  which 
occurred  during  the  first  two  days. '  The  tend- 
ency to  decreased  vitality  in  girls  after  maturity 
and  before  marriage,  just  referred  to,  must  be 
associated  with  the  katabolic  changes  implied 
in  menstruation  and  the  newness  to  the  system 
of  this  destructive  phase  of  metabolism. 

We  should  expect  the  death-rate  of  men  to 
run  high  during  the  period  of  manhood,  in  conse- 

I  Depaul,  art.  "Nouveau-ne,"  Dictionnaire  encydopedique  des 
sciences  medicales. 


46 


Sex  and  Society 


quence  of  their  greater  exposure  to  peril,  hard- 
ship, and  the  storm  and  stress  of  Hfe.  But  two 
tendencies  operate  to  reduce  the  comparative 
mortality  of  men  between  the  twentieth  and 
about  the  fortieth  year:  the  fact  of  the  severe 
male  mortality  in  infancy,  which  has  removed  the 
constitutionally  weak  contingent,  and  the  fact 
that  during  this  period  women  are  subject  to 
death  in  connection  with  childbirth.  So  that  in 
the  prime  of  life  the  mortality  of  males  does  not 
markedly  exceed  that  of  females.  But  the 
statistics  of  longevity  show  that  with  the  ap- 
proach of  old  age  the  number  of  women  of  a 
given  age  surviving  is  in  excess  of  the  men,  and 
that  their  relative  tenacity  of  life  increases  with 
increasing  years.  Ornstein  has  shown,  from 
the  official  statistics  of  Greece  from  1878  to 
1883,  that  in  every  period  of  five  years  between 
the  ages  of  85  and  no  years  and  upward  a 
larger  number  of  women  survive  than  of  men, 
and  in  the  following  proportion : 


lYears 

85-90 

90-95 

95-100 

100-105 

105-110 

1 10  and  over 


Men 


Women 


1,296 

1.347 

700 

820 

305 

370 

116 

168 

52 

69 

20 

34 

Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes  47 

Of  the  459  centenarians  188  were  men  and 
271  were  women.'  In  Bavaria  the  women  aged 
from  51  to  55  years  alive  in  1874  had  Hved  in  the 
aggregate  more  than  seven  million  years,  while 
the  men  of  the  same  age  had  lived  not  so  much 
as  six  and  one-half  million.^  Turquan^  gives 
a  table  showing  the  death-rate  of  centenarians 
in  all  France  during  a  period  of  twenty  years 
(1866-85).  From  this  it  appears  that  there  died 
in  these  years  an  annual  average  of  73  cen- 
tenarians, of  whom  27  were  men  and  46  women. 
In  only  one  year  of  the  twenty  did  the  deaths 
of  men  exceed  those  of  women.  Lombroso  and 
Ferrero  have  shown  that  between  1870  and  1879 
the  inhabitants  of  the  prisons  and  convict  estab- 
lishments in  Italy  who  were  over  60  years  of 
age  showed  a  percentage  of  4.3  among  the 
women,  and  3 . 2  among  the  men,  although  the 
number  of  men  condemned  to  prison  for  long 
periods  is  far  greater  than  among  women. 

Women  are  not  only  longer-lived  than  men,  hut  have 
greater  powers  of  resistance  to  misfortune  and  deep  grief. 

1  B.  Ornstein,  " Makrobiotisches  aus  Griechenland,"  Archiv 
jiir  Anthropologie,  Vol.  XVII,  pp.  193  ff. 

2  G.  Mayr,  Die  Geselzmdssigkeit  im  Gesellschajtsleben  (1877), 
p.  144. 

3  V.  Turquan,  "Statistique  des  centenaires,"  Revue  scieutifique, 
September  i,  1888. 


48  Sex  and  Society 

This  is  a  well-known  law,  which  in  the  case  of  the  female 
criminal  seems  almost  exaggerated,  so  remarkable  is  her 
longevity  and  the  toughness  with  which  she  endures  the 
hardships,  even  the  prolonged  hardships,  of  prison  life. 
.  .  .  .  I  know  some  denizens  of  female  prisons  who  have 
reached  the  age  of  90,  having  lived  within  those  walls 
since  they  were  29  without  any  grave  injury  to  health.' 

Woman's  resistance  to  death  is  thus  more 
marked  at  the  two  extremes  of  life,  infancy  and 
old  age,  the  periods  in  which  her  anabolism 
is  uninterrupted.  Menstruation,  reproduction, 
and  lactation  are  at  once  the  cause  of  an  anabolic 
surplus  and  the  means  of  getting  rid  of  it.  At 
the  extremes  of  life  no  demand  of  this  kind  is 
made  on  woman,  and  her  anabolic  nature 
expresses  itself  at  these  times  in  greater  resist- 
ance. 

Dr.  Lloyd  Jones  has  determined  that  between 
1 7  and  45  years  of  age  the  specific  gravity  of  the 
blood  of  women  is  lower  than  that  of  men. 
In  old  women  the  specific  gravity  rises  above 
that  of  old  men,  and  he  suggests  that  their 
greater  longevity  is  due  to  this.  ^  No  doubt  the 
greater  longevity  of  women  is  to  be  associated 
with  the  rise  in  specific  gravity  of  their  blood, 

'  Lombroso  e  Ferrero,  loc.  ciL,  chap.  10. 

'  E.  Lloyd  Jones,"  Further  Observations  on  the  Specific  Gravity 
of  the  Blood  in  Health  and  Disease,"  Journal  0}  Physiology 
Vol.  XII,  p.  308. 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes  49 

but  this  rise  in  the  specific  gravity  of  women 
after  45  years  is  consequent  upon  their  anabolic 
constitution.  High  specific  gravity  in  general  is 
associated  with  abundant  and  rich  nutrition; 
it  falls  in  women  during  pregnancy,  lactation, 
and  menstruation,  and  when  these  functions 
cease  it  is  natural  that  the  constructive  meta- 
bolic tendency  on  which  they  are  dependent 
should  show  itself  in  a  heightened  specific  gravity 
of  the  blood  (i.  e.,  greater  richness),  and  in  con- 
sequence greater  longevity. 

Some  facts  in  the  brain  development  of  women 
point  to  the  same  conclusion.  The  growth  of 
the  brain  is  relatively  more  rapid  in  women  than 
in  men  before  the  twentieth  year.  Between 
15  and  20  it  has  reached  its  maximum,  and  from 
that  time  there  is  a  gradual  decline  in  weight 
until  about  the  fiftieth  year,  when  there  is  an 
acceleration  of  growth,  followed  by  a  renewed 
diminution  after  the  sixtieth  year.  The  maxi- 
mum of  brain  weight  is  almost  reached  by  men 
at  20  years,  but  there  is  a  slow  increase  until 
30  or  35  years.  There  is  then  a  diminution 
until  the  fiftieth  year,  followed  by  an  accelera- 
tion, and  at  60  years  again  a  rapid  diminution  in 
weight ;  but  the  acceleration  is  more  marked  and 
the  fiinal  diminution  less  marked  in  woman  than 


50  Sex  and  Society 

in  man.'  A  table  prepared  by  Topinard,  shows 
that  woman  from  20  to  60  years  of  age  has  from 
126  to  164  grams  less  brain  weight  than  man, 
while  her  deficit  from  60  to  90  years  is  from  123 
to  158  grams. ^ 

The  only  explanation  at  hand  of  this  relative 
superiority  of  brain  weight  in  old  women  is  that 
with  the  close  of  the  period  of  reproduction 
(the  anabolic  surplus  being  no  longer  consumed 
in  the  processes  associated  with  reproduction) 
the  constructive  tendency  still  asserts  itself, 
and  a  slight  access  of  growth  and  vitality  results 
to  the  organism. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  testimony  of 
anthropologists  on  the  difference  in  variability 
of  men  and  women  is  to  be  accepted  with  great 
caution.  As  a  class  they  have  gone  on  the 
assumption  that  woman  is  an  inferior  creation, 
and  have  almost  totally  neglected  to  distinguish 
between  the  congenital  characters  of  woman  and 
those  acquired  as  the  result  of  a  totally  different 
relation  to  society  on  the  part  of  women  and 
men.  They  have  also  failed  to  appreciate  the 
fact  that  differences  from  man  are  not  neces- 

'  Cf.  Topinard,  Loc.  cii.,  pp.  517-25,  557,  558. 
'  Ji>id.,  p.  559. 


Organic  Differences  in  the  Sexes  51 

sarily  points  of  inferiority,  but  adaptations  to 
different  and  specialized  modes  of  functioning. 
But,  whatever  may  be  the  final  interpretation  of 
details,  I  think  the  evidence  is  sufficient  to  estab- 
lish the  following  main  propositions:  Man 
consumes  energy  more  rapidly;  woman  is  more 
conservative  of  it.  The  structural  variability 
of  man  is  mainly  toward  motion;  woman's 
variational  tendency  is  not  toward  motion,  but 
toward  reproduction.  Man  is  fitted  for  feats 
of  strength  and  bursts  of  energy;  woman  has 
more  stability  and  endurance.  While  woman 
remains  nearer  to  the  infantile  type,  man 
approaches  more  to  the  senile.  The  extreme 
variational  tendency  of  man  expresses  itself  in 
a  larger  percentage  of  genius,  insanity,  and 
idiocy;  woman  remains  more  nearly  normal. 

The  fact  that  society  is  composed  of  two 
sexes,  numerically  almost  equal,  but  differing 
in  organic  and  social  habits,  is  too  significant  to 
remain  without  influence  on  the  structural  and 
occupational  sides  of  human  life,  and  in  the 
following  chapters  we  shall  note  some  of  the 
influences  of  sex,  and  of  the  difl'erences  in  bodily 
habit  of  men  and  women,  on  social  forms  and 
activities. 


SEX    AND    PRIMITIVE    SOCIAL 
CONTROL 


SEX  AND   PRIMITIVE  SOCIAL 
CONTROL 

The  greater  strength  and  restlessness  of  man 
and  the  more  stationary  condition  of  woman 
have  a  striking  social  expression  in  the  fact  that 
the  earliest  groupings  of  population  were  about 
the  females  rather  than  the  males. 

While  at  a  disadvantage  in  point  of  force  when 
compared  with  the  male,  the  female  has  enjoyed 
a  negative  superiority  in  the  fact  that  her  sexual 
appetite  was  not  so  sharp  as  that  of  the  male. 
Primitive  man,  when  he  desired  a  mate,  sought 
her.  The  female  was  more  passive  and  station- 
ary. She  exercised  the  right  of  choice,  and  had 
the  power  to  transfer  her  choice  more  arbitrarily 
than  has  usually  been  recognized;  but  the  need 
of  protection  and  assistance  in  providing  for 
offspring  inclined  her  to  a  permanent  union, 
and  doubtless  natural  selection  favored  the 
groups  in  which  parents  co-operated  in  caring 
for  the  offspring.  But  assuming  a  relation  per- 
manent enough  to  be  called  marriage,  the  man 
was  still,  as  compared  with  the  woman,  unsettled 
and  unsocial.     He  secured  food  by  violence  or 

55 


56  Sex  and  Society 

cunning,    and    hunting   and    fighting   were   fit 
expressions  of  his  somatic  habit. 

The  woman  was  the  social  nucleus,  the  point 
to  which  he  returned  from  his  wanderings.  In 
this  primitive  stage  of  society,  however,  the  bond 
between  woman  and  child  was  altogether  more 
immediate  and  constraining  than  the  bond 
between  woman  and  man.  The  maternal  in- 
stinct is  reinforced  by  necessary  and  constant 
association  with  the  child.  We  can  hardly  find 
a  parallel  for  the  intimacy  of  association  between 
mother  and  child  during  the  period  of  lactation ; 
and,  in  the  absence  of  domesticated  animals  or 
suitable  foods,  and  also,  apparently,  from  simple 
neglect  formally  to  wean  the  child,  this  con- 
nection is  greatly  prolonged.  The  child  is  fre- 
quently suckled  from  four  to  five  years,  and 
occasionally  from  ten  to  twelve.'  In  conse- 
quence we  find  society  literally  growling  up 
about  the  woman.  The  mother  and  her  chil- 
dren, and  her  children's  children,  and  so  on 
indefinitely  in  the  female  line,  form  a  group. 
But  the  men  were  not  so  completely  incorporated 
in  this  group  as  the  women,  not  only  because 
parentage  was  uncertain  and  naming  of  children 

I  H.  Ploss,  Das  Weib  in  der  Natur-  u?id  Volkerkunde,  3.  Aufl., 
Vol.  II,  p.  379. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  57 

consequently  on  the  female  side,  but  because  the 
man  was  neither  by  necessity  nor  disposition  so 
much  a  home-keeper  as  the  women  and  their 
children. 

The  tangential  disposition  of  the  male  is  ex- 
pressed in  the  system  of  exogamy  so  character- 
istic of  tribal  life.  The  movement  toward 
exogamy  doubtless  originates  in  the  restlessness 
of  the  male,  the  tendency  to  make  new  co-ordina- 
tions, the  stimulus  to  seek  more  unfamiliar 
women,  and  the  emotional  interest  in  making 
unfamiliar  sexual  alliances.  But,  quite  aside 
from  its  origin,  exogamy  is  an  energetic  expres- 
sion of  the  male  nature.  Natural  selection 
favors  the  process  by  sparing  the  groups  which 
by  breeding  out  have  heightened  their  physical 
vigor.'  There  results  from  this  a  social  condi- 
tion which,  from  the  standpoint  of  modern  ideas, 
is  very  curious.  The  man  makes,  and,  by  force 
of  convention,  finally  must  make,  his  matri- 
monial alliances  only  with  women  of  other 
groups;  but  the  woman  still  remains  in  her  own 
group,  and  the  children  are  members  of  her 
group,  while  the  husband  remains  a  member  of 

I  Endogamous  tribes  have  survived,  in  the  main,  in  isolated 
regions  where  competition  was  not  sufficiently  sharp  to  set  a 
premium  on  exogamy.  It  may  be  assumed  that  the  history  of 
exogamous  groups  has  been  more  cataclysmical. 


58  Sex  and  Society 

his  own  clan,  and  is  received,  or  may  be  received, 
as  a  guest  in  the  clan  of  his  wife.  Upon  his 
death  his  property  is  not  shared  by  his  children, 
nor  by  his  wife,  since  these  are  not  members  of 
his  clan ;  but  it  falls  to  the  nearest  of  kin  within 
his  clan — usually  to  his  sister's  children. 

The  maternal  system  of  descent  is  found  in 
all  parts  of  the  world  where  social  advance 
stands  at  a  certain  level,  and  the  evidence  war- 
rants the  assumption  that  every  group  which 
advances  to  a  culture  state  passes  through  this 
stage.  Morgan  gives  an  account  of  this  system 
among  the  Iroquois : 

Each  household  was  made  up  on  the  principle  of  kin. 
The  married  women,  usually  sisters,  own  or  collateral, 
were  of  the  same  gens  or  clan,  the  symbol  or  totem  of 
which  was  often  painted  upon  the  house,  while  their  hus- 
bands and  the  wives  of  their  sons  belonged  to  several  other 
gentes.  The  children  were  of  the  gens  of  their  mother. 
While  husband  and  wife  belonged  to  different  gentes,  the 
predominating  number  in  each  household  would  be  of 
the  same  gens,  namely,  that  of  their  mothers.  As  a  rule 
the  sons  brought  home  their  wives,  and  in  some  cases  the 
husbands  of  the  daughters  were  admitted  to  the  maternal 
household.  Thus  each  household  was  composed  of  a 
mixture  of  persons  of  different  gentes,  but  this  would  not 
prevent  the  numerical  ascendency  of  the  particular  gens 
to  whom  the  house  belonged.  In  a  village  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty  houses,  as  the  Seneca  village  of  Tiotohatton 


Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  59 

described  by  Mr.  Greenbalge  in  1677,  there  would  be 
several  houses  belonging  to  each  gens.  It  presented  a 
general  picture  of  the  Indian  life  in  all  parts  of  America 
at  the  epoch  of  European  discovery.^ 

Morgan  also  quotes  Rev.  Ashur  Wright,  for 
many  years  a  missionary  among  the  Senecas 
and  familiar  with  their  language  and  customs : 

As  to  their  family  system,  when  occupying  the  old  log 
houses,  it  is  probable  that  some  one  clan  predominated, 
the  women  taking  in  husbands,  however,  from  the  other 
clans,  and  sometimes  for  novelty,  some  of  their  sons 
bringing  in  their  young  wives  until  they  felt  brave  enough 
to  leave  their  mothers.  Usually  the  female  portion  ruled 
the  house,  and  were  doubtless  clannish  enough  about  it. 
The  stores  were  in  common,  but  woe  to  the  luckless  hus- 
band or  lover  who  was  too  shiftless  to  do  his  share  of  the 
providing.  No  matter  how  many  children  or  whatever 
goods  he  might  have  in  the  house,  he  might  at  any  time  be 
ordered  to  pick  up  his  blanket  and  budge,  and  after  such 
orders  it  would  not  be  healthful  for  him  to  attempt  to 
disobey;  the  house  would  become  too  hot  for  him,  and, 
unless  saved  by  the  intercession  of  some  aunt  or  grand- 
mother, he  must  retreat  to  his  own  clan,  or,  as  was  often 
done,  go  and  start  a  new  matrimonial  alliance  in  some 
other.  The  women  were  the  great  power  among  the  clans 
as  everywhere  else.  They  did  not  hesitate,  when  occa- 
sion required,  to  "knock  off  the  horns,"  so  it  was  tech- 
nically called,  from  the  head  of  a  chief  and  send  him  back 

'  L.  H.  Morgan,  Houses  and  House-Life  of  the  American 
Aborigines,  p.  64. 


6o  Sex  and  Society 

to  the  ranks  of  the  warriors.     The  original  nomination 
of  the  chiefs,  also,  always  rested  with  them.^ 

Traces  of  the  maternal  system  are  everywhere 
found  on  the  American  contment,  and  in  some 
regions  it  is  still  in  force.  McGee  says  of  the 
Seri  stock  of  the  southwest  coast,  now  reduced 
to  a  single  tribe,  that  the  claims  of  a  suitor  are 
pressed  by  his  female  relatives,  and,  if  the  suit 
is  favorably  regarded  by  the  mother  and  uncles 
of  the  girl,  the  suitor  is  provisionally  installed  in 
the  house,  without  purchase  price  and  presents. 
He  is  then  expected  to  show  his  worthiness  of  a 
permanent  relation  by  demonstrating  his  ability 
as  a  provider,  and  by  showing  himself  an  implac- 
able foe  to  aliens.  He  must  support  all  the 
female  relatives  of  his  bride's  family  by  the  prod- 
ucts of  his  skill  and  industry  in  hunting  and  fish- 
ing for  a  year.  He  is  the  general  protector  of 
the  girl's  family,  and  especially  of  the  girl,  whose 
bower  and  pelican-skin  couch  he  shares,  "not 
as  husband,  but  as  continent  companion,"  for  a 
year.  If  all  goes  well,  he  is  then  permanently 
received  as  "consort-guest,"  and  his  children 
are  added  to  the  clan  of  his  mother-in-law." 

I  Loc.  cit. 

'  W.  J.  McGee,  "The  Beginning  of  Marriage,"  American 
Anthropologist,  Vol.  IX,  p.  376. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  6i 

With  few  exceptions,  descent  was  formerly  reck- 
oned in  Australia  in  the  female  line,  and  the 
usage  survives  in  some  regions.  Howitt,  in  a 
letter  to  Professor  Tylor,  reports  of  the  tribes 
near  Maryborough,  Queensland: 

When  a  man  marries  a  woman  from  a  distant  locality, 
he  goes  to  her  tribelet  and  identifies  himself  with  her 
people.  This  is  a  rule  with  very  few  exceptions.  Of 
course,  I  speak  of  them  as  they  were  in  their  wild  state. 
He  becomes  a  part  of,  and  one  of,  the  family.  In  the 
event  of  a  war  expedition,  the  daughter's  husband  acts 
as  a  blood-relation,  and  will  fight  and  kill  his  own  blood- 
relations,  if  blows  are  struck  by  his  wife's  relations.  I 
have  seen  a  father  and  son  fighting  under  these  circum- 
stances, and  the  son  would  most  certainly  have  killed 
the  father,  if  others  had  not  interfered.^ 

In  Australia  there  is  also  a  very  sharp  social 
expression  of  the  fact  of  sex  in  the  division  of  the 
group  into  male  and  female  classes  in  addition 
to  the  division  into  clans.  ^  In  the  Malay 
Archipelago  the  same  system  is  found. 

Among  the  Padang  Malays  the  child  always  belongs 
to  its  mother's  suku,  and  all  blood-relationship  is  reckoned 
through  the  wife  as  the  real  transmitter  of  the  family,  the 
husband  being  only  a  stranger.  For  this  reason  his  heirs 
are  not  his  own  children,  but  the  children  of  his  sister,  his 

'  E.  B.  Tylor,  "The  Matriarchal  Family  System,"  Nhieteenth 
Century,  July,  1896,  p.  89. 

2  Fison  and  Howitt,  Kamilaroi  and  Kurnai,  pp.  2>i  ff- 


62  Sex  and  Society 

brothers,  and  other  uterine  relations;   children  are  the 

naturalheirsof  their  mother  only We  may  assume 

that,  wherever  exogamy  is  now  found  coexisting  with 
inheritance  through  the  father  (as  among  Rejangs  and 
Bataks,  the  people  of  Nias  and  Timor,  or  the  Alfurs  of 
Ceram  and  Buru),  this  was  formerly  through  the  mother ; 
and  that  the  other  system  has  grown  up  out  of  dislike  to 
the  inconveniences  arising  from  the  insecure  and  depend- 
ent condition  of  the  husband  in  the  wife's  family.^ 

In  Africa  descent  through  females  is  the  rule, 
with  exceptions.  The  practice  of  the  Wamoima, 
where  the  son  of  the  sister  is  preferred  in  legacies, 
because  "a  man's  own  son  is  only  the  son  of  his 
wife,"  is  typical.^  Battel  reported  that  the  state 
of  Loango  was  ruled  by  four  princes,  the  sons  of 
the  former  king's  sister,  since  the  own  sons  of 
the  king  never  succeeded.^ 

Traces  of  this  system  are  found  in  China  and 
Japan,  and  it  is  still  in  full  force  in  parts  of  India. 
Among  the  Kasias  of  northeast  India  the  hus- 
band resides  in  the  house  of  his  wife,  or  visits 
her  occasionally. 

Laws  of  rank  and  property  follow  the  strictest  maternal 
type;  when  a  couple  separate,  the  children  remain  with 
the  mother;  the  son  does  not  succeed  his  father,  but  the 
raja's  neglected  offspring  may  become  a  common  peasant 

1  F.  Ratzel,  History  of  Mankind,  Vol.  I,  p.  438. 

2  J.  Lippert,  Kulturgeschichte,  Vol.  II,  p.  57. 

3  Lubbock,  Origin  0}  Civilization,  p.  151. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  63 

or  laborer;  the  sister's  son  succeeds  to  rank,  and  is  heir 
to  the  property.^ 

Male  kinship  prevails  among  the  Arabs,  but 
Professor  Robertson  Smith  has  discovered  abun- 
dant evidence  that  the  contrary  practice  pre- 
vailed in  ancient  Arabia. 

The  women  of  the  Jahiliya,  or  some  of  them,  had  the 
right  to  dismiss  their  husbands,  and  the  form  of  dismissal 
was  this:  If  they  lived  in  a  tent,  they  turned  it  round,  so 
that,  if  the  door  had  faced  east,  it  now  faced  west,  and 
when  the  man  saw  this,  he  knew  that  he  was  dismissed, 
and  did  not  enter. ^ 

And  after  the  establishment  of  the  male  system 
the  women  still  held  property — a  survival  from 
maternal  times.  A  form  of  divorce  pronounced 
by  a  husband  was,  "Begone !  for  I  will  no  longer 
drive  thy  flocks  to  the  pasture."^ 

Our  evidence  seems  to  show  that,  when  something  like 
regular  marriage  began,  and  a  free  tribeswoman  had  one 
husband  or  one  definite  group  of  husbands  at  a  time,  the 
husbands  at  first  came  to  her  and  she  did  not  go  to  them.'* 

Numerous  survivals  of  the  older  system  are 
also  found  among  the  Hebrews.  The  servant 
of  Abraham  anticipated  that  the  bride  whom  he 

'  Tylor,  loc.  cit.,  p.  87. 

2  W.  Robertson  Smith,  Kinship  and  Marriage  in  Early  Arabia, 
p.  65. 

i  Ibid.,  p.  94.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  173. 


64  Sex  and  Society 

was  sent  to  bring  for  Isaac  might  be  unwilling 
to  leave  her  home,  and  the  presents  which  he 
carried  went  to  Rebekah's  mother  and  brother.' 
Laban  says  to  Jacob,  "These  daughters  are  my 
daughters,  and  these  children  are  my  children;'"' 
the  obligation  to  blood-vengeance  rests  appar- 
ently on  the  maternal  kindred;^  Samson's 
Philistine  wife  remained  among  her  people  ;"* 
and  the  injunction  in  Gen.  2:24,  "Therefore 
shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and  his  mother,  and 
shall  cleave  unto  his  wife,"  refers  to  the  primitive 
Hebraic  form  of  marriage.  ^  Where  the  matriar- 
chate  prevails  we  naturally  find  no  prejudice 
against  marriage  with  a  half-sister  on  the  father's 
side,  while  union  with  a  uterine  sister  is  inces- 
tuous. Sara  was  a  half-sister  of  Abraham  on 
the  father's  side,  and  Tamar  could  have  married 
her  half-brother  Amnon,^  though  they  were 
both  children  of  David ;  and  a  similar  condition 
prevailed  in  Athens  under  the  laws  of  Solon.  ^ 
Herodotus  says  of  the  Lycians : 

Ask  a  Lycian  who  he  is,  and  he  will  answer  by  giving 
his  own  name,  that  of  his  mother,  and  so  on  in  the  female 
line.     Moreover,  if  a  free  woman  marry  a  man  who  is  a 

1  Gen.  24:5,  53.  4  Judg.  15. 

2  Gen.  31:43.  s  Cf.  Smith,  loc.  cit.,  176. 

3  Judg.  8:19.  62  Sam.  13:13. 
7  G.  A.  Wilken,  Das  Matriarchal,  p.  41. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  65 

slave,  their  children  are  free  citizens;  but  if  a  free  man 
marry  a  foreign  woman,  or  cohabit  with  a  concubine, 
even  though  he  be  the  first  person  in  the  state,  the  children 
forfeit  all  rights  of  citizenship.^ 

Herodotus  also  relates  that  when  Darius  gave 
to  the  wife  of  Intaphernes  permission  to  claim 
the  life  of  a  single  man  of  her  kindred,  she  chose 
her  brother,  saying  that  both  husband  and  chil- 
dren could  be  replaced.''  The  declaration  of 
Antigone  in  Sophocles,^  that  she  would  have 
performed  for  neither  husband  nor  children  the 
toil  which  she  undertook  for  Polynices,  against 
the  will  of  the  citizens,  indicates  that  the  tie  of  a 
common  womb  was  stronger  than  the  social  tie 
of  marriage.  The  extraordinary  honor,  privi- 
lege, and  proprietary  rights  enjoyed  by  ancient 
Egyptian  and  Babylonian  wives'*  are  traceable 
to  an  earlier  maternal  organization. 

All  ethnologists  admit  that  descent  through 
females  has  been  very  widespread,  but  some 
deny  that  this  system  has  been  universally  preva- 
lent at  any  stage  of  culture.  Those  who  have 
diminished  its  importance,  however,  have  done 
so  chiefly  in  reinforcement  of  their  denials  of  the 

1  Herodotus  (Rawlinson),  I,  173. 

2  Ihid.,  Ill,  119.  3  Lines  905  ff. 

4  E.  J.  Simcox,  Primitive  Civilisations,  Vol.  I,  pp.  200-11, 
233,  et  passim. 


66  Sex  and  Society 

theory  of  promiscuity.  It  has  been  very  gener- 
ally assumed  that  maternal  descent  is  due  solely 
to  uncertainty  of  paternity,  and  that  an  admis- 
sion that  the  maternal  system  has  been  univer- 
sal is  practically  an  admission  of  promiscuity. 
Opponents  of  this  theory  have  consequently  felt 
called  upon  to  minimize  the  importance  of 
maternal  descent. '  But  descent  through  females 
is  not,  in  fact,  fully  explained  by  uncertainty  of 
parentage  on  the  male  side.  It  is  due  to  the 
larger  social  fact,  including  this  biological  one, 
that  the  bond  between  mother  and  child  is  the 
closest  in  nature,  and  that  the  group  grew  up 
about  the  more  stationary  female;  and  conse- 
quently the  questions  of  maternal  descent  and 
promiscuity  are  by  no  means  so  inseparable  as 
has  commonly  been  assumed.  We  may  accept 
Sir  Henry  Maine's  terse  remark  that  "paternity 
is  a  matter  of  inference,  as  opposed  to  maternity, 
which  is  a  matter  of  observation,'"'  without 
concluding  that  society  would  have  been  first  of 
all  patriarchal  in  organization,  even  if  paternity 
had  been  also  a  matter  of  observation.  For  the 
association  of  the  woman  with  the  child  is  imme- 


1  Notably,  Westermarck,  History  of  Human  Marriage,   pp. 
lOO  ff. 

2  Dissertation  on  Early  Law  and  Custom,  p.  202. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  67 

diate  and  perforce,  but  the  immediate  interest 
of  the  man  is  in  the  woman,  through  the  power 
of  her  sexual  attractiveness,  and  his  interest  in 
the  child  is  secondary  and  mediated  through  her. 
This  relation  being  a  constant  one,  having  its 
roots  in  the  nature  of  sex  rather  than  in  the 
uncertainty  of  parentage,  we  may  safely  con- 
clude that  the  so-called  "mother-right"  has 
everywhere  preceded  "father-right,"  and  was 
the  fund  from  which  the  latter  was  evolved. 

But  while  it  is  natural  that  the  children  and 
the  group  should  grow  up  about  the  mother,  it 
is  not  conceivable  that  woman  should  definitely 
or  long  control  the  activities  of  society,  especially 
on  their  motor  side.  In  view  of  his  superior 
power  of  making  movements  and  applying  force, 
the  male  must  inevitably  assume  control  of  the 
life  direction  of  the  group,  no  matter  what  the 
genesis  of  the  group.  It  is  not  a  difficult  con- 
clusion that,  if  woman's  leaping,  lifting,  running, 
climbing,  and  slugging  capacity  is  inferior  to 
man's,  by  however  slight  a  margin,  her  fighting 
capacity  is  less  in  the  same  degree ;  for  battle  is 
only  an  application  of  force,  and  there  has  never 
been  a  moment  in  the  history  of  society  when  the 
law  of  might,  tempered  by  sexual  affinity,  did 
not  prevail.     We  must  then,  in  fact,  recognize  a 


68  Sex  and  Society 

sharp  distinction  between  the  law  of  descent  and 
the  fact  of  authority. 

The  male  was  everywhere  present  in  primitive 
society,  and  everywhere  made  his  force  felt. 
We  can  see  this  illustrated  most  plainly  in  the 
animal  group,  where  the  male  is  the  leader,  by 
virtue  of  his  strength.  There  is  also  a  stage  of 
human  society  which  may  be  called  the  prematri- 
archal  stage,  from  the  fact  that  ideas  of  kinship 
are  so  feeble  that  no  extensive  social  filiation  is 
effected  through  this  principle,  in  consequence 
of  which  the  group  has  not  reached  the  tribal 
stage  of  organization  on  the  basis  of  kinship,  but 
remains  in  the  primitive  biological  relation  of 
male,  female,  and  offspring.  The  Botocudos, 
Fuegians,  Eskimos,  West  Australians,  Bushmen, 
and  Veddahs  represent  this  primitive  stage  more 
or  less  completely;  they  have  apparently  not 
reached  the  stage  where  the  fact  of  kinship 
expresses  itself  in  maternal  organization.  They 
live  in  scattered  bands,  held  together  loosely  by 
convenience,  safety,  and  inertia,  and  the  male 
is  the  leader;  but  the  leadership  of  the  male  in 
this  case,  as  among  animals,  is  very  different 
from  the  organized  and  institutional  expression 
of  the  male  force  in  systems  of  political  control 
growing  out  of  achievement.     This  involves  a 


Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  69 

social  history  through  which  these  low  tribes 
have  not  passed. 

Organization  cannot  proceed  very  far  in  the 
absence  of  social  mass,  and  the  collection  of 
social  mass  took  place  unconsciously  about  the 
female  as  a  universal  preliminary  of  the  con- 
scious synthetization  of  the  mass  through  males. 
From  the  side  of  organization,  the  negative 
accretion  of  population  about  female  centers  and 
filiation  through  blood  is  very  precious,  since 
filiation  based  on  relation  to  females  prepares  the 
way  for  organization  based  on  motor  activities. ' 
But  in  the  prematernal  stage,  in  the  maternal 
stage,  and  in  the  patriarchal  stage  the  male 
force  was  present  and  was  the  carrier  of  the 
social  will.  In  the  fully  maternal  system,  in- 
deed, the  male  authority  is  only  thinly  veiled,  or 
not  at  all.  Filiation  through  female  descent 
precedes  filiation  through  achievement,  because 
it  is  a  function  of  somatic  conditions,  in  the  main, 
while  filiation  through  achievement  is  a  function 

'  It  prepares  the  way,  however,  only  in  the  sense  that  it  furnishes 
the  mass  out  of  which  the  organization  arises.  If  there  had  been 
no  social  grouping  through  reproduction,  there  would  yet  have 
been  ultimately  filiation  of  men  for  the  sake  of  mutually  profitable 
enterprises.  Blood-brotherhood  and  the  treaty  are  devices  indi- 
cating that  early  man  had  sufficient  inventive  imagination  to  do 
this.  The  tribal  group  may,  in  fact,  be  described  as  a  fighting 
male  organization  living  in  a  group  of  females. 


70  Sex  and  Society 

of  historical  conditions.  This  advantage  of 
maternal  organization  in  point  of  time  embar- 
rasses and  obscures  the  individual  and  collective 
expression  of  the  male  force,  but  under  the  veil 
of  female  nomenclature  and  in  the  midst  of  the 
female  organization  we  can  always  detect  the 
presence  of  the  male  authority.  Bachofen's 
conception  of  the  maternal  system  as  a  political 
system  was  erroneous,  as  Dargun  and  others 
have  pointed  out, '  though  woman  has  been  rein- 
forced by  the  fact  of  descent,  and  has  so  figured 
somewhat  in  political  systems. 

A  most  instructive  example  of  the  parallel 
existence  of  descent  through  females  and  of  male 
authority  is  found  in  the  Wyandot  tribe  of 
Indians,  in  which  also  the  participation  of 
woman  in  the  regulative  activities  of  society  is, 
perhaps,  more  systematically  developed  than  in 
any  other  single  case  among  maternal  peoples. 
Major  Powell  gives  the  following  outline  of  the 
civil  and  military  government  of  this  tribe : 

The  civil  government  inheres  in  a  system  of  councils 
and  chiefs.  In  each  gens  there  is  a  council,  composed  of 
four  women,  called  Yu-wai-yu-wd-na.  These  four 
women  councilors  select  a  chief  of  the  gens  from  its  male 
members — that  is,  from  their  brothers  and  sons.     This 

I  See  L.  von  Dargun,  MuiterrecJit  und  VaterrecJit. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  71 

gentile  chief  is  the  head  of  the  gentile  council.  The 
council  of  the  tribe  is  composed  of  the  aggregated  gentile 
councils.  The  tribal  council,  therefore,  is  composed  one- 
fifth  of  men  and  four-fifths  of  women.  The  sachem  of 
the  tribe,  or  tribal  chief,  is  chosen  by  the  chiefs  of  the 
gentes.  There  is  sometimes  a  grand  council  of  the  gens, 
composed  of  the  councilors  of  the  gens  proper  and  all  the 
heads  of  households  (women)  and  leading  men — brothers 
and  sons.  There  is  also  a  grand  council  of  the  tribe, 
composed  of  the  council  of  the  tribe  proper  and  the  heads 
of  households  of  the  tribe,  and  all  the  leading  men  of  the 

tribe 

The  four  women  councilors  of  the  gens  are  chosen  by 
the  heads  of  households,  themselves  being  women.  There 
is  no  formal  election,  but  frequent  discussion  is  had  over 
the  matter  from  time  to  time,  in  which  a  sentiment  grows 
up  within  the  gens  and  throughout  the  tribe  that,  in  the 
event  of  the  death  of  any  councilor,  a  certain  person  will 
take  her  place.  In  this  manner  there  are  usually  one,  two, 
or  more  potential  councilors  in  each  gens,who  are  expected 
to  attend  all  the  meetings  of  the  council,  though  they  take 
no  part  in  the  deliberations  and  have  no  vote.  When  a 
woman  is  installed  as  a  councilor,  a  feast  is  prepared  by 
the  gens  to  which  she  belongs,  and  to  this  feast  all  the 
members  of  the  tribe  are  invited.  The  woman  is  painted 
and  dressed  in  her  best  attire,  and  the  sachem  of  the  tribe 
places  upon  her  head  the  gentile  chaplet  of  feathers,  and 
announces  in  a  formal  manner  to  the  assembled  guests 

that  the  woman  has  been  chosen  a  councilor The 

gentile  chief  is  chosen  by  the  council  women  after  con- 
sultation with  the  other  women  and  men  of  the  gens. 
Often  the  gentile  chief  is  a  potential  chief  through  a 


72  Sex  and  Society 

period  of  probation.  During  this  time  he  attends  the 
meetings  of  the  council,  but  takes  no  part  in  the  dehbera- 
tions  and  has  no  vote.  At  his  installation,  the  council 
women  invest  him  with  an  elaborately  ornamented  tunic, 
place  upon  his  head  a  chaplet  of  feathers,  and  paint  the 

gentile  totem  upon  his  face The  sachem  of  the 

tribe  is  selected  by  the  men  belonging  to  the  council  of 
the  tribe. 

The  management  of  military  affairs  inheres  in  the 
military  council  and  chief.  The  military  council  is  com- 
posed of  all  the  able-bodied  men  of  the  tribe;  the  militar}' 
chief  is  chosen  by  the  council  from  the  Porcupine  gens. 
Each  gentile  chief  is  responsible  for  the  military  training 
of  the  youth  under  his  authority.  There  are  usually  one 
or  more  potential  military  chiefs,  who  are  the  close  com- 
panions and  assistants  of  the  chief  in  time  of  war  and, 
in  case  of  the  death  of  the  chief,  take  his  place  in  the 
order  of  seniority.^ 

In  this  tribe  the  numerical  recognition  of 
women  is  striking,  and  indicates  that  they  are 
the  original  core  of  society.  They  are  still 
responsible  for  society,  in  a  way,  but  all  the 
offices  involving  motor  activity  are  deputed  to 
men.  Thus  women,  as  heads  of  households, 
choose  four  women  councilors  of  the  clan  (gens), 
and  these  choose  the  fifth  member,  who  is  a  man 
and  the  head  of  the  council  and  chief  of  the  clan. 
The  tribal  chief  is,  however,  chosen  by  males, 

I  J.  W.  Powell,  "Wyandot  Government,"  First  Antiiial  Re- 
port of  the  Bureau  oj  American  Ethtwlogy,  1879-80,  pp.  61  £f. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  73 

and  in  the  military  organization,  which  repre- 
sents the  group  capacity  for  violence,  the  women 
have  not  even  a  nominal  recognition.  The  real 
authority  rests  with  those  who  are  most  fit  to 
exercise  it.  Female  influence  persists  as  a 
matter  of  habit,  until,  under  the  pressure  of 
social,  particularly  of  military,  activities,  the 
breaking  up  of  the  habit  and  a  new  accommo- 
dation follows  the  accumulation  of  a  larger  fund 
of  social  energy. 

The  men  of  any  group  are  at  any  time  in  pos- 
session of  the  force  to  change  the  habits  of  the 
group  and  push  aside  any  existing  system.  But 
the  savage  is  not  revolutionary;  his  life  and  his 
social  sanctions  are  habitual.  He  is  averse  to 
change  as  such,  and  retains  form  and  rite  after 
their  meaning  is  lost.  We  consequently  find  an 
expression  of  social  respect  for  woman  under 
the  maternal  system  suggestive  of  chivalry,  and 
even  a  formal  elevation  of  women  to  authority  in 
groups  where  the  actual  control  is  in  the  hands 
of  men. 

In  the  Mariana  Islands  the  position  of  woman 
was  distinctly  superior;  even  when  the  man  had 
contributed  an  equal  share  of  property  on  mar- 
riage, the  wife  dictated  everything  and  the  man 
could  undertake  nothing  without  her  approval; 


74  Sex  and  Society 

but,  if  the  woman  committed  an  offense,  the  man 
was  held  responsible  and  suffered  the  punish- 
ment. The  women  could  speak  in  the  assembly, 
they  held  property,  and  if  a  woman  asked  any- 
thing of  a  man,  he  gave  it  up  without  a  murmur. 
If  a  wife  was  unfaithful,  the  husband  could  send 
her  home,  keep  her  property,  and  kill  the 
adulterer;  but  if  the  man  was  guilty,  or  even 
suspected  of  the  same  offense,  the  women  of  the 
neighborhood  destroyed  his  house  and  all  his 
visible  property,  and  the  owner  was  fortunate 
if  he  escaped  with  a  whole  skin;  and  if  a  wife 
was  not  pleased  with  her  husband,  she  withdrew, 
and  a  similar  attack  followed.  On  this  account 
many  men  were  not  married,  preferring  to  live 
with  paid  women.  Likewise,  in  the  Gilbert 
Islands  a  man  shows  the  same  respect  to  a 
woman  as  to  a  chief,  by  stepping  aside  when 
he  meets  her.  If  a  man  strikes  a  woman,  the 
other  women  drive  him  from  the  tribe.  On 
Lukunor  the  men  used,  in  conversation  with 
women,  not  the  usual,  but  a  deferential  form 
of  language. ' 

The  discoverers  of  the  Friendly  Islands  found 
there  a  king  in  authority  over  the  people,  and 

I  Waitz-Gerland,  Anthropologic  dcr  Naturvolker,  Vol.  V,  pp. 
107  ff. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  75 

his  wife  in  control  of  the  king,  receiving  homage 
from  him,  but  not  ruHng. '  In  these  and  similar 
cases  woman's  early  relation  to  the  household 
is  formally  retained  in  the  larger  group  and  in 
the  presence  of  an  obviously  masculine  form  of 
organization. 

But,  in  contrast  with  the  survival  in  political 
systems  of  the  primitive  respect  shown  mothers, 
we  find  the  assertion  of  individual  male  force 
within  the  very  bosom  of  the  maternal  organiza- 
tion, in  the  person  of  the  husband,  brother,  or 
uncle  of  the  woman.  Among  the  Caribs  "the 
father  or  head  of  the  household  exerts  unlimited 
authority  over  his  wives  and  children,  but  this 
authority  is  not  founded  on  legal  rights,  but 
upon  his  physical  superiority."^  In  spite  of  the 
maternal  system  in  North  America,  the  women 
were  often  roughly  handled  by  their  husbands. 
Schoolcraft  says  of  the  Kenistenos:  "When  a 
young  man  marries,  he  immediately  goes  to  live 
with  the  father  and  mother  of  his  wife,  who  treat 
him,  nevertheless,  as  an  entire  stranger  till  after 
the  birth  of  his  first  child."     But 

it  appears  that  chastity  is  considered  by  them  as  a  virtue 
....  and  it  sometimes  happens  that  the  infideUty  of  a 

'  Lippert,  Kulkirgeschichte,  Vol.  II,  p.  50. 

2  C.  N.  Starcke,  The  Primitive  Family,  p.  37. 


76  Sex  and  Society 

wife  is  punished  Ijy  the  husband  with  the  loss  of  her  hair, 
nose,  or  perhaps  h'fe.  Such  severity  proceeds,  perhaps, 
less  from  rigidity  of  virtue  than  from  its  having  been 
practiced  without  his  permission ;  for  a  temporary  inter- 
change of  wives  is  not  uncommon,  and  the  offer  of  their 
persons  is  considered  as  a  necessary  part  of  the  hospitality 
due  to  strangers.' 

Schoolcraft  also  says  of  the  women  of  the  Chip- 
peways,  among  whom  the  maternal  system  had 
given  way: 

They  are  very  submissive  to  their  husbands,  who  have 
however,  their  fits  of  jealousy;  and  for  very  trifling  causes 
treat  them  with  such  cruelty  as  sometimes  to  occasion 
their  death.  They  are  frequently  objects  of  traffic,  and 
the  father  possesses  the  right  of  disposing  of  his  daughter.^ 

Indian  fathers  also  frequently  sold  their  children, 
without  any  show  of  right.  "Kane  mentions 
that  the  Shastas  ....  frequently  sell  theii" 
children  as  slaves  to  the  Chinooks."^  Bancroft 
says  of  the  Columbians:  "Affection  for  children 
is  by  no  means  rare,  but  in  few  tribes  can  they 
resist  the  temptation  to  sell  or  gamble  them 
away."-*  Descent  through  mothers  is  in  force 
among  the  negroes  of  equatorial  Africa,   the 

I  H.  R.  Schoolcraft,  History,  Co)uiition,  and  Prospects  of  the 
Indian  Tribes  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  V,  p.  167. 

*  Ibid.,  pp.  174-76. 

3  Bancroft,  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  States,  Yo\.  I,  p.  351. 

4  Ibid.,  Vol.  I,  p.  219. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  77 

man's  property  passing  to  his  sister's  children; 
but  the  father  is  an  unlimited  despot,  and  no 
one  dares  to  oppose  him.  So  long  as  his  relation 
with  his  wives  continues,  he  is  master  of  them 
and  of  their  children.  He  can  even  sell  the 
latter  into  slavery.'  In  New  Britain  maternal 
descent  prevails,  but  wives  are  obtained  by 
purchase  or  capture,  and  are  practically  slaves; 
they  are  cruelly  treated,  carry  on  agriculture, 
and  bear  burdens  which  make  them  prema- 
turely stooped,  and  are  likely,  if  their  husbands 
are  offended,  to  be  killed  and  eaten.  ^ 

In  many  regions  of  Australia  women  are 
treated  with  extreme  brutality,  when  their  work 
is  not  satisfactory,  or  the  husband  has  any  other 
cause  for  offense.  In  Victoria  the  men  often 
break  their  staves  over  the  heads  of  the  women, 
and  skulls  of  women  have  been  found  in  which 
knitted  fractures  indicated  former  ill-treatment. 
In  Cape  York  the  women  are  beaten,  and  in  the 
interior  an  angry  native  burned  his  wife  alive. 
In  the  Adelaide  dialect  the  phrase  "owner  of  a 
woman"  means  husband.  ^Vhen  a  man  dies, 
his  uterine  brother  inherits  his  wife  and  children.^ 

1  A.  Hovelaque,  Les  Negres,  p.  316. 

2  Von  Dargun,  loc.  cit.,  p.  5. 

3  Waitz-Gerland,  loc.  cit.,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  774  ff. 


78  Sex  and  Society 

Where  under  an  exogamous  system  of  mar- 
riage a  man  is  forced  to  go  outside  his  group  to 
obtain  a  wife,  he  may  do  this  either  by  going 
over  to  her  group,  by  taking  possession  of  her 
violently,  or  by  offering  her  and  the  members  of 
her  group  sufficient  inducements  to  relinquish 
her;  and  the  contrasted  male  and  female  dis- 
position is  expressed  in  all  the  forms  of  mar- 
riage incident  to  the  exogamous  system.  Every 
exogamous  group  is  naturally  reluctant  to  relin- 
quish its  women,  both  because  it  has  in  them 
laborers  and  potential  mothers  whose  children 
will  be  added  to  the  group,  and  because,  in  the 
event  of  their  remaining  in  the  group  after  mar- 
riage their  husbands  become  additional  defend- 
ers and  providers  within  the  group.  Where 
the  husband  is  to  settle  in  the  family  of  the  wife, 
a  test  is  consequently  often  made  of  his  ability 
as  a  provider.  Among  the  Zuni  Indians  there  is 
no  purchase  price,  no  general  exchange  of  gifts; 
but  as  soon  as  the  agreement  is  reached,  the 
young  man  must  undertake  certain  duties : 

He  must  work  in  the  field  of  his  prospective  mother-in- 
law,  that  his  strength  and  industry  may  be  tested;  he 
must  collect  fuel  and  deposit  it  near  the  maternal  domicile, 
that  his  disposition  as  a  provider  may  be  made  known; 
he  must  chase  and  slay  the  deer,  and  make  from  an  entire 
buckskin  a  pair  of  moccasins  for  the  bride,  and  from  other 


Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  79 

skins  and  textiles  a  complete  feminine  suit,  to  the  end  that 
his  skill  in  hunting,  skin-dressing,  and  weaving  may  be 
displayed;  and,  finally,  he  must  fabricate  or  obtain  for  the 
maiden's  use  a  necklace  of  seashell  or  of  silver,  in  order 
that  his  capacity  for  long  journeys  or  successful  barter 
may  be  established;  but  if  circumstances  prevent  him 
from  performing  these  duties  actually,  he  may  perform 
them  symbolically,  and  such  performance  is  usually 
acceptable  to  the  elder  people.  After  these  prehminaries 
are  completed,  he  is  formally  adopted  by  his  wife's 
parents,  yet  remains  merely  a  perpetual  guest,  subject  to 
dislodgment  at  his  wife's  behest,  though  he  cannot 
legally  withdraw  from  the  covenant;  if  dissatisfied,  he 
can  only  so  ill-treat  his  wife  or  children  as  to  compel  his 
expulsion." 

This  practice  is  seen  in  a  symbolical  form 
where  presents  are  required  of  the  suitor  before 
marriage  and  their  equivalent  returned  later. 
By  depositing  goods  accumulated  through  his 
activities  he  demonstrates  his  ability  as  a  pro 
vider,  without  undergoing  a  formal  test.  This 
practice  is  reported  of  the  Indians  of  Oregon : 

The  suitor  never,  in  person,  asks  the  parents  for  their 
daughter;  but  he  sends  one  or  more  friends,  whom  he 
pays  for  their  services.  The  latter  sometimes  effect  their 
purposes  by  feasts.  The  offer  generally  includes  a  state- 
ment of  the  property  which  will  be  given  for  the  wife  to  the 
parents,  consisting  of  horses,  blankets,  or  buffalo  robes. 
The  wife's  relations  always  raise  as  many  horses  (or  other 

I  McGee,  loc.  cii.,  p.  374. 


8o  Sex  and  Society 

property)  for  her  dower  as  the  bridegroom  has  sent  the 
parents,  but  scrupulously  take  care  not  to  turn  over  the 

same  horses  or  the   same   articles This   is   the 

custom  alike  of  the  Walla-Wallas,  Nez-Percds,  Cayuse, 
Waskows,  Flatheads,  and  Spokanes.^ 

In  Patagonia  the  usual  custom  is  for  the  bridegroom, 
after  he  has  secured  the  consent  of  his  damsel,  to  send 
either  a  brother  or  some  intimate  friend  to  the  parents, 
offering  so  many  mares,  horses,  or  silver  ornaments  for 
the  bride.  If  the  parents  consider  the  match  desirable, 
as  soon  after  as  circumstances  will  permit,  the  bridegroom, 
dressed  in  his  best,  and  mounted  on  his  best  horse,  pro- 
ceeds to  the  toldo  of  his  intended,  and  hands  over  the 
gifts;  the  parents  then  return  gifts  of  equivalent  value, 
which,  however,  in  the  event  of  a  separation  are  the  prop- 
erty of  the  bride. ^ 

Marriage  by  capture  is  an  immediate  expres- 
sion of  male  force.  Like  marriage  by  settlement 
in  the  house  of  the  wife,  it  is  an  expedient  for 
obtaining  a  wife  outside  the  group  where  mar- 
riage by  purchase  is  not  developed,  or  where 
the  suitor  cannot  offer  property  for  the  bride. 
It  is  an  unsocial  procedure  and  does  not  persist 
in  a  growing  society,  for  it  involves  retaliation 
and  blood-feud.  But  it  is  a  desperate  means 
of  avoiding  the  constraint  and  embarrassment 
of  a  residence  in  the  family  and  among  the  rela- 

1  Schoolcraft,  2oc.  cit.,  Yo\.  V,  p.  654. 

2  Lieutenant  Musters,  "On  the  Races  of  Patagonia,"  Journal 
of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  Vol.  I,  p.  201. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  8i 

tives  of  the  wife,  where  the  power  of  the  husband 
is  hindered,  and  the  male  disposition  is  not 
satisfied  in  this  matter  short  of  personal  owner- 
ship. 

The  man  also  sometimes  lives  under  the 
maternal  system  in  regular  marriage,  but  escapes 
its  disadvantages  by  stealing  a  supplementary 
wife  or  purchasing  a  slave  woman,  over  whom 
and  whose  children  he  has  full  authority.  In 
the  Babar  Archipelago,  where  the  maternal 
system  persists,  even  in  the  presence  of  mar- 
riage by  purchase  (the  man  living  in  the  house 
of  the  woman,  and  the  children  reckoned  with  the 
mother),  it  is  considered  highly  honorable  to 
steal  an  additional  wife  from  another  group,  and 
in  this  case  the  children  belong  to  the  father.' 
Among  the  Kinbundas  of  Africa  children  belong 
to  the  maternal  uncle,  who  has  the  right  to  sell 
them,  while  the  father  regards  as  his  children 
in  fact  the  offspring  of  a  slave  woman,  and  these 
he  treats  as  his  personal  property.  To  the  same 
elTect,  among  the  Wanyamwesi,  south  of  the 
Victoria  Nyanza,  the  children  of  a  slave  wife 
inherit,  to  the  exclusion  of  children  born  of  a 
legal  wife.     And  husbands  among  the  Fellatahs 

'  R.  Steinmetz,  Ethnologische  Studien  ziir  ersten  Entwickelung 
der  Strafe,  Vol.  II,  p.  272. 


82  Sex  and  Society 

are  in  the  habit  of  adopting  children,  though 
they  may  have  sons  or  daughters  of  their  own, 
and  the  adopted  children  inherit  the  property." 
In  Indonesia  a  man  sometimes  marries  a  woman 
and  settles  in  her  family,  and  the  children  belong 
to  her.  But  he  may  later  carry  her  forcibly  to 
his  own  group,  and  the  children  then  belong  to 
him.^' 

Bosman  relates  that  in  Guinea  religious  sym- 
bolism was  also  introduced  by  the  husband  to 
reinforce  and  lend  dignity  to  this  action.  The 
maternal  system  held  with  respect  to  the  chief 
wife: 

It  was  customary,  however,  for  a  man  to  buy  and  take 
to  wife  a  slave,  a  friendless  person  with  whom  he  could 
deal  at  pleasure,  who  had  no  kindred  that  could  interfere 
for  her,  and  to  consecrate  her  to  his  Bossum  or  god.  The 
Bossum  wife,  slave  as  she  had  been,  ranked  next  to  the 
chief  wife,  and  was  like  her  exceptionally  treated.  She 
alone  was  very  jealously  guarded,  she  alone  was  sacrificed 
at  her  husband's  death.  She  was,  in  fact,  wife  in  a 
peculiar  sense.  And  having,  by  consecration,  been  made 
of  the  kindred  and  worship  of  her  husband,  her  children 
would  be  born  of  his  kindred  and  worship. 3 

Altogether   the   most   satisfactory   means   of 

'  A.  Giraud-Teulon,  Les  origines  dii  mariage  et  de  la  famille, 
p.  440. 

'  Von  Dargun,  loc.  cit.,  p.  119. 

3  J.  F.  McLennan,  The  Patriarchal  Theory,  p.  235. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  83 

removing  a  girl  from  her  group  is  to  purchase 
her.     The  use  of  property  in  the  acquisition  of 
women  is  not  a  particular  expression  of  the 
male  nature,  since  property  is  accumulated  by 
females  as  well ;  but  where  this  form  of  marriage 
exists  it  means  practically  that  the  male  rela- 
tives of  the  girl  are  using  her  for  profit,  and  that 
her  suitor  is  seeking  more  complete  control  of 
her  than  he  can  gain  in  her  group;  and  viewed 
in  this  light  the  purchase  and  sale  of  women  is 
an  expression  of  the  dominant  nature  of  the 
male.     In    consequence    of    purchase,  woman  ,- 
became  in  barbarous  society  a  chattel,  and  her| 
socially  constrained  position  in  history  and  the 
present  hindrances  to  the  outflow  of  her  activities  , 
are  to  be  traced  largely  to  the  system  of  purchas-J 
ing  wives. 

The  simplest  form  of  purchase  is  to  give  a 
woman  in  exchange.  "The  Australian  male 
almost  invariably  obtains  his  wife  or  wives 
either  as  the  survivor  of  a  married  elder  brother 
or  in  exchange  for  his  sisters,  or,  later  in  life,  for 
his  daughters.'"  A  wife  is  also  often  sold  on 
credit,  but  kept  at  home  until  the  price  is  paid. 
On  the  island  of  Serang  a  youth  belongs  to  the 
family  of  the  girl,  living  according  to  her  customs 

'  E.  M.  Curr,  The  Australian  Race,  Vol.  I,  p.  107. 


84  Sex  and  Society 

and  religion  until  the  bride-price  is  paid.  He 
then  takes  both  wife  and  children  to  his  tribe. 
But  in  case  he  is  very  poor,  he  never  pays  the 
price,  and  remains  perpetually  in  the  tribe  of 
his  wife.^  Among  the  Kwakiutl  Indians  of 
British  Columbia  the  maternal  has  only  barely 
given  way  to  the  paternal  system,  and  the  form 
of  marriage  reflects  both  systems.  The  suitor 
sends  a  messenger  with  blankets,  and  the  number 
sent  is  doubled  within  three  months,  making  in 
all  about  one  hundred  and  fifty.  These  are  to 
be  returned  later.  He  is  then  allowed  to  live 
with  the  girl  in  her  father's  house.  Three 
months  later  the  husband  gives  perhaps  a  hun- 
dred blankets  more  for  permission  to  take  his 
wife  home.''  Among  the  Makassar  and  Begin- 
ese  stems  of  Indionesia  the  purchase  of  a  wife 
involves  only  a  partial  relinquishment  of  the 
claim  of  the  maternal  house  on  the  girl;  the 
purchase  price  is  paid  by  instalments  and  all 
belongs  to  the  mother's  kindred  in  case  full 
payment  is  not  made.  A  compromise  between 
the  two  systems  is  made  on  the  Molucca 
Islands,  where  children  born  before  the  bride- 

I  Steinmetz,  loc.  cit.,  Vol.  II,  p.  273. 

»  F.  Boas,  "On  the  Indians  of  British  Columbia,"  Report  of 
the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  1S89,  p.  838. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  85 

price  is  paid  belong  to  the  mother's  side,  after 
that  to  the  father's.' 

So  long  as  a  wife  remained  in  her  group,  she 
could  rely  upon  her  kindred  for  protection 
against  ill-usage  from  her  husband,  but  she 
forfeited  this  advantage  when  she  passed  to  his 
group.  An  x^rabian  girl  replies  to  her  father, 
when  a  chief  seeks  her  in  marriage:  "No!  I 
am  not  fair  of  face,  and  I  have  infirmities  of 
temper,  and  I  am  not  his  hmVamm  (tribes- 
woman)  ,  so  that  he  should  respect  my  consan- 
guinity with  him,  nor  does  he  dwell  in  thy 
country,  so  that  he  should  have  regard  for  thee ; 
I  fear  then  that  he  may  not  care  for  me  and  may 
divorce  me,  and  so  I  shall  be  in  an  evil  case."^ 
The  Hassanyeh  Arabs  of  the  White  Nile  region 
in  Egypt  afford  a  curious  example  of  the  conflict 
of  male  and  female  interests  in  connection  with 
marriage,  in  which  the  female  passes  by  contract 
for  only  a  portion  of  her  time  under  the  authority 
of  the  male : 

When  the  parents  of  the  man  and  woman  meet  to 
settle  the  price  of  the  woman,  the  price  depends  on  how 
many  days  in  the  week  the  marriage  tie  is  to  be  strictly 
observed.     The  woman's  mother  first  of  all  proposes  that, 

I  Von  Dargun,  loc.  cit.,  121-25. 
»  Smith,  loc.  cit.,  p.  loi. 


86  Sex  and  Society 

taking  everything  into  consideration,  with  a  due  regard 
for  the  fcehngs  of  the  family,  she  could  not  think  of  bind- 
ing her  daughter  to  a  due  observance  of  that  chastity 
which  matrimony  is  expected  to  command  for  more  than 
two  days  in  the  week.  After  a  great  deal  of  apparently 
angry  discussion,  and  the  promise  on  the  part  of  the  rela- 
tives of  the  man  to  pay  more,  it  is  arranged  that  the  mar- 
riage shall  hold  good,  as  is  customary  among  the  first 
families  of  the  tribe,  for  four  days  in  the  week,  viz.; 
Monday,  Tuesday,  Wednesday,  and  Thursday;  and,  in 
compliance  with  old-established  custom,  the  marriage 
rites  during  the  three  remaining  days  shall  not  be  insisted 
on,  during  which  days  the  bride  shall  be  perfectly  free  to 
act  as  she  may  think  proper,  either  by  adhering  to  her 
husband  and  home,  or  by  enjoying  her  freedom  and 
independence  from  all  observation  of  matrimonial  obli- 
gations.^ 

We  may  understand  also  that  the  tolerance  of 
loose  conduct  in  girls  before  marriage — a  toler- 
ance which  amounts  in  many  tribes  to  approval 
— is  due  to  the  tribal  recognition  of  the  value  of 
children,  and  children  born  out  of  marriage  are 
added  to  the  family  of  the  mother,  ^^^len, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  conduct  of  the  girl  is 
strictly  watched,  this  is  from  a  consideration 
that  virgins  command  a  higher  bride-price. 
Child-marriages  and  long  betrothals  are  means 

'  Spencer,  Descriptive  Sociology.  Vol.  X,  p.  8,  quoting  Petherick, 
Egypt,  the  Soudan,  and  Central  Africa,  pp.  140-44. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  87 

of  guaranteeing  the  proper  conduct  of  a  girl  to 
her  husband,  as  they  constitute  a  personal  claim 
and  afford  him  an  opportunity  to  throw  more 
restrictions  about  her.  So  that,  in  any  case,  the 
conduct  of  the  girl  is  viewed  with  reference  to 
her  value  to  the  tribe. 

A  social  grouping  which  is  not  the  product 
of  forces  more  active  in  their  nature  than  the 
reproductive  force  may  be  expected  to  yield 
before  male  motor  activities,  when  these  are  for 
any  reason  sufficiently  formulated.  The  primi- 
tive warrior  and  hunter  comes  into  honor  and 
property  through  a  series  of  movements  involv- 
ing judgments  of  time  and  space,  and  the  suc- 
cessful direction  of  force,  aided  by  mechanical 
appliances  and  mediated  through  the  hand  and 
the  eye.  Whether  directed  against  the  human 
or  the  animal  world,  the  principle  is  the  same; 
success  and  honor  and  influence  in  tribal  life 
depend  on  the  application  of  violence  at  the 
proper  time,  in  the  right  direction,  and  in  suffi- 
cient measure;  and  this  is  pre-eminently  the 
business  of  the  male.  The  advantage  of  acting 
in  concert  in  war  and  hunting,  and  under  the 
leadership  of  those  who  have  shown  evidence  of 
the  best  judgment  in  these  matters,  is  felt  in  any 
body  of  men  who  are  held  together  by  any  tie; 


88  Sex  and  Society 

and  the  first  tie  is  the  tie  of  blood,  by  which  we 
should  understand,  not  that  primitive  man  has 
any  sentimental  feeling  about  kinship,  but  that  he 
is  psychologically  inseparable  from  those  among 
whom  he  was  born  and  with  whom  he  has  to  do. 
Though  the  father's  sense  of  kinship  and  interest 
in  his  children  is  originally  feeble,  it  increases 
with  the  growth  of  consciousness  in  connection 
with  various  activities,  and,  at  the  point  in  race 
developm.ent  when  chieftainship  is  hereditary 
in  the  clan  and  personal  property  is  recognized, 
the  father  realizes  the  awkwardness  of  a  social 
system  which  reckons  his  children  as  members 
of  another  clan  and  forces  him  to  bequeath  his 
rank  and  possessions  to  his  sister's  children,  or 
other  members  of  his  own  group,  rather  than  to 
his  children.  The  Navajoes'  and  Nairs,^  and 
ancient  Egyptians^  avoided  this  unpleasant  con- 
dition by  giving  their  property  to  their  children 
during  their  own  lifetime;  and  the  Sha\Miees, 
Miamis,  Sauks,  and  Foxes  avoided  it  by  naming 
the  children  into  the  clan  of  the  father,  giving 
a  child  a  tribal  name  being  equivalent  to  adop- 
tion.'*   The  cleverest  bit  of  primitive  politics 

'  H.  H.  Bancroft,  loc.  cil.,  Vol.  I,  p.  506. 
'  Simcox,  loc.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  p.  211. 

3  Ibid. 

4  Morgan,  Ancient  Society,  p.  169. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  89 

of  which  we  have  record  is  the  device  employed 
in  ancient  Peru,  and  surviving  in  historical 
times  in  Egypt  and  elsewhere  in  the  East,  by 
which  the  ruler  married  his  own  sister,  contrary 
to  the  exogamous  practice  of  the  common  folk. 
The  children  might  then  be  regularly  reckoned 
as  of  the  kin  of  the  mother,  indeed,  but  they 
were  at  the  same  time  of  and  in  the  group  of  the 
father,  and  the  king  secured  the  succession  of 
his  own  son  by  marrying  the  woman  whose  son 
would  traditionally  succeed. 

As  we  should  expect,  the  desirability  of  modi- 
fying the  system  of  descent  and  inheritance 
through  females  is  felt  first  in  connection  with 
situations  of  honor  and  profit.  At  the  time  of 
the  discovery  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands  the  gov- 
ernment was  a  brutal  despotism,  presenting 
many  of  the  features  of  feudalism;  the  people 
prostrated  themselves  before  the  king  and  before 
objects  which  he  had  touched,  and  a  man  suf- 
fered death  whose  shadow  fell  upon  the  king, 
or  who  went  uncovered  within  the  shadow  of 
the  king's  house,  or  even  looked  upon  the  king 
by  day.'  But  descent  was  in  the  female  line, 
with  a  tendency  to  transfer  to  the  male  line  in 
case  of  the  king,  and  among  chiefs,  priests,  and 

I  Waitz-Gerland,  loc.  cit.,  Vol.  VI,  p.  20. 


Qo  Sex  and  Society 

nobility. '  This  assertion  of  the  male  authority 
was  sometimes  resented,  however,  and  was  a 
source  of  frequent  trouble.  Wilkes  states  that 
there  was  formerly  no  regularly  established  order 
of  succession  to  the  throne;  the  children  of  the 
chief  wife  had  the  best  claim,  but  the  king  often 
named  his  own  successor,  and  this  gave  rise  to 
violent  conflicts. "" 

Blood-brotherhood,  blood- vengeance,  secret 
societies,  tribal  marks  (totemism,  circumcision, 
tattooing,  scarification),  and  religious  dedication 
are  devices  by  which,  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously, the  men  escape  from  the  tyranny  of  the 
maternal  system.  We  cannot  assume  that  these 
practices  originate  solely  or  largely  in  dissatis- 
faction, for  the  men  would  feel  the  advantage  of 
a  combination  of  interests  whenever  brought 
into  association  with  one  another;  but  these 
artificial  bonds  and  their  display  to  the  eye  are 
among  the  first  attempts  to  s}Tithetize  the  male 
forces  of  the  group,  and  it  is  quite  apparent  that 
such  unions  are  unfavorable  to  the  continuance 
of  the  influence  of  w^omen  and  of  the  system 
which  they  represent.  In  West  Africa  and 
among  some  of  the  negro  tribes  the  initiatory 

'  Ellis,  Tour  through  Haivaii,  p.  391. 

'  Waitz-Gerland,  loc.  cit.,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  201-3. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  91 

ceremony  is  apparently  deliberately  hostile  to 
the  maternal  organization.  The  youth  is  taken 
from  the  family  of  his  mother,  symbolically 
killed  and  buried,  resurrected  by  the  priests 
into  a  male  organization,  and  dedicated  to  his 
father's  god. ' 

Spatial  conditions  have  played  an  impor- 
tant role  also  in  the  development  of  societies. 
Through  movements  the  individual  or  the  group 
is  able  to  pick  and  choose  advantageous  rela- 
tions, and  by  changing  its  location  adjust  itself 
to  changes  in  the  food  conditions.  That  the 
success  of  the  group  is  definitely  related  to  its 
motor  capacity  is  revealed  by  the  following  law 
of  population,  worked  out  by  statisticians  for  the 
three  predominant  races  of  modern  Europe :  In 
countries  inhabited  jointly  by  these  three  races, 
the  race  possessing  the  smallest  portion  of 
wealth  and  the  smallest  representation  among 
the  more  influential  and  educated  classes  con- 
stitutes also  the  least  migratory  element  of  the 
population,  and  tends  in  the  least  degree  to  con- 
centrate in  the  cities  and  the  more  fertile  regions 
of  the  country;  and  in  countries  inhabited 
jointly  by  the  three  races,  the  race  possessing 
the  largest  portion  of  wealth  and  the  largest 

'  J.  Lippert,  Kulturgeschichle,  Vol.  II,  p.  342. 


92  Sex  and  Society 

representation  among  the  more  influential  and 
educated  classes  is  also  the  most  migratory  ele- 
ment of  the  population,  and  tends  in  the  greatest 
degree  to  concentrate  in  the  cities  and  the  more 
fertile  portions  of  the  country.'  The  primitive 
movements  of  population  necessitated  by  cli- 
matic change,  geological  disturbances,  the  failure 
of  water  or  exhaustion  of  the  sources  of  food, 
were  occasions  for  the  expression  of  the  superior 
motor  disposition  of  the  male  and  for  the  dis- 
lodgment  of  the  female  from  her  position  of 
advantage. 

We  know  that  the  migrations  of  the  natural 
races  are  necessary  and  frequent,  and  the  move- 
ments of  the  culture  races  have  been  even  more 
complex.  The  leadership  of  these  mass-move- 
ments and  spatial  reaccommodations  necessarily 
rests  with  the  men,  who,  in  their  wanderings, 
have  become  acquainted  with  larger  stretches  of 
space,  and  whose  specialty  is  motor  co-ordina- 
tion. The  progressive  races  have  managed  the 
space  problem  best.  At  every  favorable  point 
they  have  pushed  out  their  territorial  boundaries 
or  transferred  their  social  activities  to  a  region 
more  favorable  to  their  expansion.    Under  male 

'  C.  C.  Closson,  "The  Hierarchy  of  European  Races,"  Atneri- 
can  Jourual  oj  Sociology,  Vol.  III,'pp.  315  ff. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Social  Control  93 

leadership,  in  consequence,  territory  has  always 
become  the  prize  in  every  conflict  of  races;  the 
modern  state  is  based  not  on  blood  but  on  terri- 
tory, and  territory  is  at  present  the  reigning 
political  ideal. 

In  the  process  of  coming  into  control  of  a 
larger  environment  through  the  motor  activities 
of  the  male,  the  group  comes  into  collision  with 
other  groups  within  which  the  same  movement 
is  going  on,  and  it  then  becomes  a  question  which 
group  can  apply  force  more  destructively  and 
remove  or  bring  under  control  this  human  por- 
tion of  its  environment.  Military  organization 
and  battle  afford  the  grand  opportunity  for  the 
individual  and  mass  expression  of  the  superior 
force-capacity  of  the  male.  They  also  determine 
experimentally  which  groups  and  which  indi- 
viduals are  superior  in  this  respect,  and  despo- 
tism, caste,  slavery,  and  the  subjection  of  women 
are  concrete  expressions  of  the  trial. 

The  nominal  headship  of  woman  within  the 
maternal  group  existed  only  in  default  of  forms 
of  activity  fit  to  formulate  headship  among  the 
men,  and  when  chronic  militancy  developed 
an  organization  among  the  males,  the  political 
influence  of  the  female  was  completely  shattered. 
At  a  certain  point  in  history  women  became  an 


94  Sex  and  Society 

unfree  class,  precisely  as  slaves  became  an  unfree 
class — because  neither  class  showed  a  superior 
fitness  on  the  motor  side;  and  each  class  is 
regaining  its  freedom  because  the  race  is  sub- 
stituting other  forms  of  decision  for  violence. 


SEX  AND  SOCIAL  FEELING 


SEX  AND  SOCIAL  FEELING 

An  examination  of  the  early  habits  of  man 
and  an  analysis  of  the  instincts  which  persist  in 
him  show  that  he  has  been  essentially  a  preda- 
cious animal,  fighting  his  way  up  at  every  step 
of  the  struggle  for  existence.  It  therefore  be- 
comes a  point  of  considerable  interest  to  deter- 
mine what  influences  have  contributed  to  soften 
his  behavior  and  make  it  possible  for  him  to 
dwell  in  harmony  and  co-operation  with  large 
groups  of  his  fellows. 

We,  the  lineal  representatives  of  the  successful  enactors 
of  one  scene  of  slaughter  after  another,  must,  whatever 
more  pacific  virtues  we  may  also  possess,  still  carry  about 
with  us,  ready  to  burst  at  any  moment  into  flame,  the 
smouldering  and  sinister  traits  of  character  by  means  of 
which  they  lived  through  so  many  massacres,  harming 

others,   but   themselves  unharmed If  evolution 

and  the  survival  of  the  fittest  be  true  at  all,  the  destruction 
of  prey  and  of  human  rivals  must  have  been  among  the 
most  important  of  man's  primitive  functions,  the  fighting 
and  the  chasing  instincts  must  have  become  ingrained. 
Certain  perceptions  must  immediately,  and  without  the 
intervention  of  inferences  and  ideas,  have  prompted 
emotions  and  motor  discharges ;  and  both  the  latter  must, 
from  the  nature  of  the  case,  have  been  very  violent,  and 
therefore  when  unchecked  of  an  intensely  pleasurable 

97 


98  Sex  and  Society 

kind.  It  is  just  because  bloodthirstiness  is  such  a  primi- 
tive part  of  us  that  it  is  so  hard  to  eradicate,  especially 
where  a  fight  or  a  hunt  is  promised  as  a  part  of  the  fun. 
.  .  .  .  No!  those  who  try  to  account  for  this  from 
above  downwards,  as  if  it  resulted  from  the  consequences 
of  the  victory  being  rapidly  inferred,  and  from  the  agree- 
able sensations  associated  with  them  in  the  imagination, 
have  missed  the  root  of  the  matter.  Our  ferocity  is  blind 
and  can  only  be  explained  from  below.  Could  we  trace 
it  back  through  our  lines  of  descent,  we  should  see  it 
taking  more  and  more  the  form  of  a  fatal  reflex  response, 
and  at  the  same  time  becoming  more  and  more  the  pure 
and  direct  emotion  that  it  is.^ 

If  we  examine,  in  fact,  our  pleasures  and  pains, 
our  moments  of  elation  and  depression,  we  find 
that  they  go  back  for  the  most  part  to  instincts 
developed  in  the  struggle  for  food  and  rivalry 
for  mates.  We  can  perhaps  best  get  at  the 
meaning  of  the  conflict  interest  to  the  organism 
in  terms  of  the  significance  to  itself  or  the  organ- 
ism's own  movements.  Locomotion,  of  what- 
ever type,  is  primarily  to  enable  the  animal  to 
reach  and  grasp  food,  and  also  to  escape  other 
animals  bent  on  finding  food.  The  structure 
of  the  organism  has  been  built  up  gradually 
through  the  survival  of  the  most  efficient  struc- 
tures. Corresponding  with  a  structure  mechani- 
cally adapted  to  successful  movements,  there  is 

I  William  James,  Principles  of  Psychology,  Vol.  II,  pp.  410  ff. 


Sex  and  Social  Feeling  99 

developed  on  the  psychic  side  an  interest  in  the 
conflict  situation  as  complete  and  perfect  as  is 
the  structure  itself.  The  emotional  states  are, 
indeed,  organic  preparations  for  action,  corre- 
sponding broadly  with  a  tendency  to  advance 
or  retreat,  and  a  connection  has  even  been  made 
out  between  pleasurable  states  and  the  extensor 
muscles,  and  painful  states  and  the  flexor  mus- 
cles. We  can  have  no  adequate  idea  of  the  time 
consumed  and  the  experiments  made  in  nature 
before  the  development  of  these  types  of  struc- 
ture and  interest  of  the  conflict  pattern,  but  we 
know  from  the  geological  records  that  the  time 
and  experiments  were  long  and  many,  and  the 
competition  so  sharp,  that  finally,  not  in  man 
alone,  but  in  all  the  higher  classes  of  animals, 
body  and  mind,  structure  and  interest,  were 
working  perfectly  in  motor  actions  of  the  violent/ 
type  involved  in  a  life  of  conflict,  competition,  ^ 
and  rivalry.  There  could  not  have  been  devel- 
oped an  organism  depending  on  offensive  and 
defensive  movements  for  food  and  life  without 
an  interest  in  what  we  call  a  dangerous  or  pre- 
carious situation.  A  type  without  this  interest 
would  have  been  defective,  and  would  have 
dropped  out  in  the  course  of  development. 
There  has  been  comparatively  little  change  in 


loo  Sex  and  Society 

human  structure  or  human  interest  in  historical 
times.  It  is  a  popular  view  that  moral  and  cul- 
tural views  and  interests  have  superseded  our 
animal  instincts ;  but  the  cultural  period  is  only 
a  span  in  comparison  with  prehistoric  times  and 
the  prehuman  period  of  life,  and  it  seems  prob- 
able that  types  of  psychic  reaction  were  once  for 
all  developed  and  fixed;  and  while  objects  of 
attention  and  interest  in  different  historical 
periods  are  different,  we  shall  never  get  far  away 
from  the  original  types  of  stimulus  and  reaction. 
It  is,  indeed,  a  condition  of  normal  life  that  we 
should  not  get  too  far  away  from  them. 

The  fact  that  our  interests  and  enthusiasms 
are  called  out  in  situations  of  the  conflict  t}^e  is 
shown  by  a  glance  at  the  situations  which  arouse 
them  most  readily.  War  is  simply  an  organized 
form  of  fight,  and  as  such  is  most  attractive,  or, 
to  say  the  least,  arouses  the  interests  powerfully. 
With  the  accumulation  of  property,  and  the 
growth  of  sensibility  and  intelligence,  it  becomes 
apparent  that  war  is  a  wasteful  and  unsafe 
process,  and  public  and  personal  interests  lead 
us  to  avoid  it  as  much  as  possible.  But,  how- 
ever genuinely  war  may  be  deprecated,  it  is 
certainly  an  exciting  game.  The  Rough  Riders 
in  this  country  recently,  and  more  recently  the 


Sex  and  Social  Feeling  loi 

young  men  of  the  aristocracy  of  England,  went 
to  war  from  motives  of  patriotism,  no  doubt; 
but  there  are  unmistakable  evidences  that  they 
also  regarded  it  as  the  greatest  sport  they  were 
likely  to  have  a  chance  at  in  a  lifetime.  And 
there  is  evidence  in  plenty  that  the  emotional 
attitude  of  women  toward  war  is  no  less  intense. 
Grey'  relates  that  half  a  dozen  old  women  among 
the  Australians  will  drive  the  men  to  war  with  a 
neighboring  tribe  over  a  fancied  injury.  The 
Jewish  maidens  went  out  with  music  and  dan- 
cing, and  sang  that  Saul  had  slain  his  thousands, 
but  David  his  ten  thousands.  Two  American 
women  who  passed  through  the  horrors  of  the 
siege  of  Pekin  were,  on  their  return,  given  a 
reception  by  their  friends,  and  the  daily  press 
reported  that  they  exhibited  among  other 
trophies  "a  Boxer's  sword  with  the  blood  still 
on  the  blade,  which  was  taken  from  the  body 
of  a  Boxer  killed  by  the  legation  guards;  and  a 
Boxer  spear  with  which  a  native  Christian  girl 
was  struck  down  in  Legation  Street."  It  is  not 
necessary  to  regard  as  morbid  or  vulgar  the 
action  of  these  ladies  in  bringing  home  reminders 
of  their  peril.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  a  sign  of 
continued  animal  health  and  instinct  in  the  race 

'  Journals  of  Two  Expeditions,  Vol.  II,  p.  317. 


I02  Sex  and  Society 

to  feel  deep  interest  in  perilous  situations  and 
pleasure  in  their  revival  in  consciousness. 

"Unaccommodated  man"  was,  to  begin  with, 
in  relations  more  hostile  than  friendly.  The 
struggle  for  food  was  so  serious  a  fact,  and 
predaciousness  to  such  a  degree  the  habit  of  life, 
that  a  suspicious,  hostile,  and  hateful  state  of 
mind  was  the  rule,  with  exceptions  only  in  the 
cases  where  truce,  association,  and  alliance  had 
come  about  in  the  course  of  experience.  This 
was  still  the  state  of  affairs  in  so  advanced  a 
stage  of  development  as  the  Indian  society  of 
North  America,  where  a  tribe  was  in  a  state  of 
war  with  every  tribe  with  which  it  had  not  made 
a  treaty  of  peace;  and  it  is  perhaps  true,  gener- 
ally speaking,  of  men  today,  that  they  regard 
others  with  a  degree  of  distrust  and  aversion 
until  they  have  proved  themselves  good  fellows. 
What,  indeed,  would  be  the  fate  of  a  man  on  the 
streets  of  a  city  if  he  did  otherwise  ?  There  has, 
nevertheless,  grown  up  an  intimate  relation 
between  man  and  certain  portions  of  his  environ- 
ment; and  this  includes,  not  only  his  wife  and 
children,  his  dog  and  his  blood-brother,  but, 
with  lessening  intensity,  the  members  of  his 
clan,  tribe,  and  nation.  These  become,  psycho- 
logically speaking,   a  portion  of  himself,   and 


Sex  and  Social  Feeling  103 

stand  with  him  against  the  world  at  large. 
From  the  standpoint  here  outlined,  prejudice 
or  its  analogue  is  the  starting-point,  and  our 
question  becomes  one  of  the  determination  of 
the  steps  of  the  process  by  which  man  mentally 
allied  with  himself  certain  portions  of  his  environ- 
ment to  the  exclusion  of  others. 

If  we  look  for  an  explanation  of  the  hostility 
which  a  group  feels  for  another  group,  and  of 
the  sympathy  which  its  members  feel  for  one 
another,  we  may  first  of  all  inquire  whether  there 
are  any  conditions  arising  in  the  course  of  the 
biological  development  of  a  species  which,  aside 
from  social  activities,  lead  to  a  predilection  for 
those  of  one's  own  kind  and  a  prejudice  against 
different  groups.  And  we  do,  in  fact,  find  such 
conditions.  The  earliest  movements  of  animal 
life  involve,  in  the  rejection  of  stimulations 
vitally  bad,  an  attitude  which  is  the  analogue 
of  prejudice.  On  the  principle  of  chemiotaxis, 
the  micro-organism  will  approach  a  particle  of 
food  placed  in  the  water  and  shun  a  particle  of 
poison;  and  its  movements  are  similarly  con- 
trolled by  heat,  light,  electricity,  and  other  tropic 
forces.'     The  development  of  animal  life  from 

'  I  have  alluded  in  more  than  one  paper  to  the  theory  of 
tropisms,  but  this  does  not  imply  an  acceptance  of  this  theory 


I04  Sex  and  Society 

this  point  upward  consists  in  the  growth  of 
structure  and  organs  of  sense  adapted  to  dis- 
criminate between  different  stimulations,  to 
choose  between  the  beneficial  and  prejudicial, 
and  to  obtain  in  this  way  a  more  complete  con- 
trol of  the  environment.  Passing  over  the  lower 
forms  of  animal  life,  we  find  in  the  human  type 
the  power  of  attention,  memory,  and  comparison 
highly  developed,  so  that  an  estimate  is  put  on 
stimulations  and  situations  correspondent  with 
the  bearing  of  stimulations  or  situations  of  this 
type  on  welfare  in  the  past.  The  choice  and  re- 
jection involved  in  this  process  are  accompanied 
by  organic  changes  (felt  as  emotions)  designed  to 

as  stated  by  Loeb  {Der  Heliotropismus  der  Thiere  und  sehie 
Uebereinstimmung  niit  dem  Heliotropismus  der  Pflanzen),  Ver- 
vorn  {Das  lebendige  Substaitz),  and  other  representatives  of  the 
"mechanical"  school  of  physiologists.  The  recent  researches  of 
Jennings  seem  to  establish  the  view  that  reactions  of  the  lower 
organisms  to  stimulation  are  less  mechanical  than  has  been  as- 
sumed by  this  school.  The  current  theory  holds  that  "the  action 
of  the  stimulus  is  directly  on  the  motor  organs  of  that  part  of 
the  organism  upon  which  the  stimulus  impinges,  thus  gi\ung  rise 
to  changes  in  the  state  of  contraction,  which  produce  orientation." 
Jennings  finds  that  "the  responses  to  stimuli  are  usually  reactions 
of  the  organisms  as  wholes,  brought  about  by  some  physiological 

change  produced  by  the  stimulus The  organism  reacts  as 

a  unit,  not  as  the  sum  of  a  number  of  independently  reacting 
organs."  H.  S.  Jennings,  "The  Theor)'  of  T"ropisms,"  Contribu- 
tions to  the  Study  of  the  Behavior  of  the  Lower  Organisms 
(Publications  of  the  Carnegie  Institution,  1904),  pp.  106,  107. 


Sex  and  Social  Feeling  105 

assist  in  the  action  which  follows  a  decisison.^ 
Both  the  judgment  and  the  emotions  are  thus 
involved  in  the  presentation  to  the  senses  of  a 
situation  or  object  involving  possible  advantage 
or  hurt,  pleasure  or  pain.  It  consequently 
transpires  that  the  feelings  called  out  on  the 
presentation  of  disagreeable  objects  and  their 
contrary  are  very  different,  and  there  arise  in  this 
connection  fixed  mental  attitudes  correspond- 
ing with  fixed  or  habitually  recurrent  external 
situations — hate  and  love,  prejudice  and  pre- 
dilection— answering  to  situations  which  revive 
feelings  of  pain  on  the  one  hand,  and  feelings 
of  pleasure  on  the  other.  And  such  is  the  work- 
ing of  suggestion  that,  not  alone  an  object  or 
situation  may  produce  a  given  state  of  feeling, 
but  a  voice,  an  odor,  a  color,  or  any  character- 
istic sign  of  an  object  may  produce  the  same 
effect  as  the  object  itself.  The  sight  or  smell  of 
blood  is  an  excitant  to  a  bull,  because  it  revives  a 
conflict  state  of  feeling,  and  even  the  color  of  a 
red  rag  produces  a  similar  effect. 

Wlien  we  come  to  examine  in  detail  the  process 
by  which  an  associational  and  sympathetic  rela- 

I  Cf.  J.  R.  Angell  and  Helen  B.  Thompson,  "A  Study  of  the 
Relations  between  Certain  Organic  Processes  and  Consciousness," 
The  University  of  Chicago  Contributions  to  Philosophy,  Vol.  II, 
No.  2. 


io6  Sex  and  Society 

tion  is  set  up  between  the  individual  and  certain 
parts  of  the  outside  world  to  the  exclusion  of 
others,  we  find  this  at  first,  on  a  purely  instinctive 
and  reflex  basis,  originating  in  connection  with 
food-getting  and  reproduction,  and  growing 
more  conscious  in  the  higher  forms  of  life.  One 
of  the  most  important  origins  of  association  and 
prepossession  is  seen  in  the  relation  of  parents, 
particularly  of  mothers,  to  children.  This  be- 
gins, of  course,  among  the  lower  animals.  The 
mammalian  class,  in  particular,  is  distinguished 
by  the  strength  and  persistence  of  the  devotion 
of  parents  to  offspring.  The  advantage  secured 
by  the  form  of  reproduction  characteristic  of 
man  and  the  other  mammals  is  that  a  closer 
connection  is  secured  between  the  child  and  the 
mother.  By  the  intra-uterine  form  of  repro- 
duction the  association  of  mother  and  offspring 
is  set  up  in  an  organic  way  before  the  birth  of 
the  latter,  and  is  continued  and  put  on  a  social 
basis  during  the  period  of  lactation  and  the 
early  helpless  years  of  the  child.  By  continuing 
the  helpless  period  of  the  young  for  a  period  of 
years,  nature  has  made  provision  on  the  time 
side  for  a  complex  physical  and  mental  type, 
impossible  in  types  thrown  at  birth  on  their  own 
resources.     Along  with  the  structural  modifica- 


Sex  and  Social  Feeling  107 

tion  of  the  female  on  account  of  the  intra-uterine 
form  of  reproduction  and  the  effort  of  nature  to 
secure  a  more  complex  type  and  a  better  chance 
of  survival,  there  is  a  corresponding  develop- 
ment of  the  sentiments,  and  maternal  feeling,  in 
particular,  is  developed  as  the  subjective  condi- 
tion necessary  to  carrying  out  the  plan  of  giving 
the  infant  a  prolonged  period  of  helplessness  and 
play  through  which  its  faculties  are  developed.* 
The  scheme  would  not  work  if  the  mother  were 
not  more  interested  in  the  child  than  in  any- 
thing else  in  the  world.  In  the  course  of  devel- 
opment every  variational  tendency  in  mothers 
to  dote  on  their  children  was  rewarded  by  the 
survival  of  these  children,  and  the  consequent 
survival  of  the  stock,  owing  to  better  nutrition, 
protection,  and  training.  Of  course,  this  inher- 
ited interest  in  children  is  shared  by  the  males  of 
the  group  also,  though  not  in  the  same  degree, 
and  there  is  reason  to  believe  also  that  the  inter- 
est of  the  male  parent  in  children  is  acquired  in 
a  great  degree  indirectly  and  socially  through 
his  more  potent  desire  to  associate  with  the 
mother. 

This  interest  and  providence  on  the  score  of 

'  Cf.  John  Fiske,  Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  Vol.  II,  pp. 
342  ff. 


io8  Sex  and  Society 

offspring  has  also  a  characteristic  expression  on 
the  mental  side.  All  sense-perceptions  are 
colored  and  all  judgments  biased  where  the 
child  is  in  question,  and  affection  for  it  extends 
to  the  particular  marks  which  distinguish  it. 
Not  only  its  physical  features,  but  its  dress  and 
little  shoes,  its  toys  and  everything  it  has  touched 
take  on  a  peculiar  aspect. 

On  the  organic  side,  therefore,  there  is  de- 
veloped a  tendency  both  in  connection  with 
reactions  to  stimulations  in  general  and  in  con- 
nection with  reproductive  life  in  particular,  to 
seize  on  particular  aspects  and  to  be  obsessed 
by  them  to  the  exclusion  or  disparagement  of 
other  aspects.  The  feelings  of  love  and  hate, 
and  the  broader  feelings  of  race-prejudice  and 
patriotism  are  consequently  based  first  of  all  in 
the  instincts. 

Perhaps  the  most  particular  and  interesting 
expression  of  the  general  fact  of  susceptibility 
is  seen  in  the  sensitiveness  of  man  to  the  opinion 
in  which  he  is  held  by  others.  Social  life  in 
every  stage  of  society  is  characterized  by  an 
eagerness  to  make  a  striking  effect.  A  bare 
reference  to  the  ethnological  facts  in  this  connec- 
tion will  suffice :  The  Kite  Indians  have  a  society 
of  young  men  so  brave  and  so  ostentatious  of 


Sex  and  Social  Feeling  109 

their  bravery  that  they  will  not  fight  from  cover 
nor  turn  aside  to  avoid  running  into  an  ambus- 
cade or  a  hole  in  the  ice.  The  African  has  the 
privilege  of  cutting  a  gash  six  inches  long  in  his 
thigh  for  every  man  he  has  killed.  The  Mela- 
nesian  who  is  planning  revenge  sets  up  a  stick  or 
stone  where  it  can  be  seen;  he  refuses  to  eat, 
and  stays  away  from  the  dance;  he  sits  silent 
in  the  council  and  answers  questions  by  whistling 
and  by  other  signs  draws  attention  to  himself 
and  has  it  understood  that  he  is  a  brave  and 
dangerous  man,  and  that  he  is  biding  his  time. " 

This  bidding  for  the  good  opinion  of  others 
has  plainly  a  connection  with  food-getting,  and 
with  the  conflict  side  of  life.  High  courage  is 
praised  and  valued  by  society,  and  a  man  of 
courage  is  less  imposed  on  by  others,  and  comes 
in  for  substantial  recognition  and  the  favor  of 
women.  It  is  thus  of  advantage  to  act  in  such 
a  way  as  to  get  public  approval  and  some  degree 
of  appreciation;  and  a  degree  of  sensibility  on 
the  score  of  the  opinion  of  others,  or  at  least  a 
reckoning  upon  this,  is  involved  in  the  process 
of  personal  adjustment. 

But  the  problem  of  personal  adjustment  at  this 

I  Cf.  R.  Steinmetz,  Ethnologische  Studien  zur  ersten  Entwicke- 
lung  der  Strafe,  Vol.  I,  p.  305. 


no  Sex  and  Society 

point  would  seem  to  call  for  more  of  intelligence 
than  emotion;  and  we  find,  on  the  contrary,  an 
excess  of  sensibility  and  a  mania  for  being  well 
thought  of  hardly  to  be  explained  as  originating 
in  the  exigencies  of  tribal  organization,  nor  yet 
on  the  score  of  its  service  to  the  individual  in 
getting  his  food  and  living  out  his  life.  Why 
could  not  primitive  man  live  in  society,  be  of  the 
war-parties,  plan  ambuscades,  develop  his  fight- 
ing technique  and  gear,  be  a  blood-brother  to 
another  man,  show  his  trophies,  set  a  high 
value  on  his  personality,  and  insist  on  recognition 
and  respect,  without  this  almost  pathological 
dependence  on  the  praise  and  blame  of  others  ? 

Or  if  we  approach  the  question  from  another 
standpoint  and  inspect  our  states  of  conscious- 
ness, we  find  signs  that  we  have  a  greater  fund 
of  sensibility  than  is  justified  in  immediate 
activity.  We  have  the  same  mania  to  be  well 
thought  of;  we  are  unduly  interested  when  we 
hear  that  others  have  been  talking  about  us ;  we 
are  annoyed,  even  furious,  at  a  slight  criticism, 
and  are  childishly  delighted  by  a  compliment 
(without  regard  to  our  deserts);  and  children 
and  adults  alike  understand  how  to  put  them- 
selves forward  and  get  notice,  and  equally  well 
how  to  get  notice  by  withdrawing  themselves 


Sex  and  Social  Feeling  iii 

and  staying  away  or  out  of  a  game.  We  have 
a  tendency  to  show  off  which  is  not  apparently 
genetically  connected  with  exploit  or  organiza- 
tion, and  we  recognize  that  this  form  of  vanity 
is  not  consistent  with  the  ordinary  run  of  our 
activities  when  we  argue  with  ourselves  that  the 
opinion  of  this  or  that  person  is  of  no  conse- 
quence and  attempt  to  think  ourselves  into  a 
state  of  indifference.  Intellectually  and  delib- 
erately our  attitude  toward  criticism  from  others 
would  often  be,  if  we  could  choose,  represented 
by  Tweed's  query:  "What  are  you  going  to  do 
about  it  ?"     But  actually  it  puts  us  to  bed. 

x\ll  of  this  seems  to  indicate  that  there  is  an 
element  in  sensibility  not  accounted  for  on  the 
exploit  or  food  side,  and  this  element  is,  I  be- 
lieve, genetically  connected  with  sexual  life. 
Unlike  the  struggle  for  existence  in  the  ordinary 
sense  of  the  phrase,  the  courtship  of  the  sexes 
presents  a  situation  in  which  an  appeal  is  made 
for  the  favor  of  another  personality,  and  the 
success  of  this  appeal  has  a  survival  value — not 
for  the  individual,  but  for  the  species  through 
the  individual.  We  have,  in  fact,  a  situation 
in  which  the  good  opinion  of  another  is  vitally 
important.  On  this  account  the  means  of 
attracting  and  interesting  others  are  definitely 


112  Sex  and  Society 

and  bountifully  developed  among  all  the  higher 
species  of  animals.  Voice,  plumage,  color,  odor, 
and  movement  are  powerful  excitants  in  wooing 
and  aids  both  to  the  conquest  of  the  female  and 
the  attraction  of  the  male.  In  this  connection 
we  must  also  recognize  the  fact  that  reproductive 
life  must  be  connected  with  violent  stimulation, 
or  it  would  be  neglected  and  the  species  would 
become  extinct;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the 
conquest  of  the  female  were  too  easy,  sexual  life 
would  be  in  danger  of  becoming  a  play  interest 
and  a  dissipation,  destructive  of  energy  and  fatal 
to  the  species.  Working,  we  may  assume,  by  a 
process  of  selection  and  survival,  nature  has  both 
secured  and  safeguarded  reproduction.  The 
female  will  not  submit  to  seizure  except  in  a  high 
state  of  nervous  excitation  (as  is  seen  especially 
well  in  the  wooing  of  birds),  while  the  male  must 
conduct  himself  in  such  a  way  as  to  manipulate 
the  female;  and,  as  the  more  active  agent,  he 
develops  a  marvelous  display  of  technique  for 
this  purpose.  This  is  offset  by  the  coyness  and 
coquetry  of  the  female,  by  which  she  equally 
attracts  and  fascinates  the  male  and  practices 
upon  him  to  induce  a  corresponding  state  of 
nervous  excitation.' 

I  See  Groos,  The  Play  of  Animals,  p.  28-?. 


Sex  and  Social  Feeling  113 

This  is  the  only  situation  in  the  life  of  the 
lower  animals,  at  any  rate,  where  the  choice 
of  another  is  vitally  important ;  and  correspond- 
ing with  the  elaborate  technique  to  secure  this 
choice  we  have  in  wooing  pleasure-pain  reac- 
tions of  a  violent  character.  In  a  vvord,  ex- 
treme sensitiveness  to  the  judgment  of  another 
answers  on  the  subjective  side  to  technique  for 
the  conquest  of  a  member  of  the  opposite  sex. 
It  seems,  therefore,  that  we  are  justified  in  con- 
cluding that  our  vanity  and  susceptibility  have 
their  origin  largely  in  sexual  life,  and  that,  in 
particular,  our  susceptibility  to  the  opinion  of 
others  and  our  dependence  on  their  good  will  are 
genetically  referable  to  sexual  life. 

This  view  would  be  completely  substantiated 
if  we  could  show  that  the  qualities  of  vanity  and 
susceptibility  in  question  are  present  in  any 
species  where  it  is  impossible  to  assume  that 
they  were  developed  in  connection  with  the 
struggle  for  food  and  as  the  result  of  the  survi- 
val of  types  showing  a  tendency  to  combine  and 
co-operate  in  the  effort  to  get  food.  And  we  do, 
in  fact,  have  cases  of  this  kind  among  some  of 
the  lower  animals.  It  cannot  be  said  that  the 
dog,  for  instance,  has  survived  in  the  struggle 
for  existence  because  of  his  sensitiveness  to  public 


114  "5^^  ^^^  Society 

opinion  in  his  species  nor  on  account  of  an  inter- 
est in  being  well  thought  of  by  the  community 
of  dogs  at  large  which  would  lead  him  to  behave 
in  a  public-spirited  or  moral  manner.  At  the 
same  time,  the  dog  in  his  relation  to  man  shows 
as  keen  a  sensitiveness  to  man's  opinion  and 
treatment  as  does  man  himself.  The  attention 
which  the  master  pays  to  one  dog  will  almost 
break  the  heart  of  a  dog  not  receiving  it.  A 
neglected  dog  plainly  suffers  as  much  in  his  way 
as  the  soldier  who  is  sent  to  Coventry  by  his 
messmates;  and  if  neglected  and  jealous  dogs 
do  not  commit  suicide,  as  they  are  reported  to  do, 
they  are  evidently  in  a  state  of  mind  to  do  so. 
This  means  that  the  dog  has  highly  developed 
susceptibility  to  the  appreciation  of  others,  and 
that  the  species  which  he  represents  has  had  no 
history  except  a  sexual  history  capable  of  devel- 
oping this  mental  attitude.  In  connection  with 
courtship  he  developed  a  fund  of  organic  suscep- 
tibility, and  this  condition  is  involved  in  his 
more  general  relation  to  man;  the  machinery 
set  up  in  sexual  relations  is  played  on  by  stimuli 
in  general.  A  condition  favorable  to  stimuli  of 
a  particular  kind  is  favorable  to  stimuli  in  gen- 
eral; and  it  seems  likely  that  this  not  very 
prominent  fact  of  a  state  of  excitation  in  a  sexual 


Sex  and  Social  Feeling  115 

connection  is  an  important  factor  in  the  forma- 
tion of  the  mind  and  of  society. 

There  are  also  certain  conditions  in  the  devel- 
opment of  the  individual  and  of  society  where  the 
sexual  type  of  reaction  is  so  near  the  surface  that 
it  shows  through  in  connection  with  political, 
moral,  and  other  essentially  non-sexual  activities. 
Passing  over  the  fact  that  the  period  of  adoles- 
cence is  noticeably  a  period  of  "susceptibility" 
and  personal  vanity,  we  may  take  as  an  example 
of  the  intrusion  or  persistence  of  the  sexual 
element  in  conditions  of  a  non-sexual  kind  the 
frequent  association  of  sexual  with  religious  ex- 
citement. '  The  appeal  made  during  a  religious 
revival  to  an  unconverted  person  has  psycho- 
logically some  resemblance  to  the  attempt  of  the 
male  to  overcome  the  hesitancy  of  the  female. 
In  each  case  the  will  has  to  be  set  aside,  and 
strong  suggestive  means  are  used;  and  in  both 
cases  the  appeal  is  not  of  the  conflict  type,  but 
of  an  intimate,  sympathetic,  and  pleading  kind. 
In  the  effort  to  make  a  moral  adjustment,  it 
consequently  turns  out  that  a  technique  is  used 
which  was  derived  originally  from  sexual  life, 

I  See  e.  g.,  Krafft-Ebing,  Psychopathia  Sexualis,  3.  Aufl.,  p.  10; 
Adams,  "Some  Phases  of  Sexual  Morality  and  Church  Discipline 
in  Colonial  New  England,"  Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  His- 
torical Society,  2d  Series,  1891,  pp.  417-516. 


ii6  Sex  and  Society 

and  the  use,  so  to  speak,  of  the  sexual  machinery 
for  a  moral  adjustment  involves,  in  some  cases, 
the  carrying  over  into  the  general  process  of  some 
sexual  manifestations.  The  emotional  forms 
used  and  the  emotional  states  aroused  are  not 
entirely  stripped  of  their  sexual  content. 

On  the  race  side,  also,  there  is  a  stage  in 
development  where  the  sexual  pattern  is  trans- 
ferred almost  unmodified  to  public  affairs.  The 
following  extracts  from  a  lengthy  description 
given  by  Mr.  Bowdich  of  his  reception  by  the 
king  of  Ashanti,  in  the  year  1817,  will  illustrate 
sufficiently  the  employment  of  the  turkey-cock 
pattern  of  activity  in  political  relations : 

The  sun  was  reflected  with  a  glare  scarcely  more  sup- 
portable than  the  heat  from  massive  gold  ornaments 
which  glistened  in  every  direction.  More  than  a  hundred 
bands  burst  at  once  on  our  arrival,  with  the  peculiar  airs 
of  their  several  chiefs ;  the  horns  flourished  their  defiances, 
with  the  beating  of  innumerable  drums  and  metal  instru- 
ments, and  then  yielded  for  a  while  to  the  soft  breathings 

of  their  long  flutes At   least  a   hundred  large 

umbrellas  or  canopies,  which  could  shelter  thirty  persons, 
were  sprung  up  and  down  by  the  bearers  with  brilliant 
effect,  being  made  of  scarlet,  yellow,  and  the  most  showy 
cloths  and  silks,  and  crowned  on  the  top  with  crescents, 
pelicans,  elephants,  barrels,  and  arms  and  swords  of  gold. 
....  The  caboceers.  as  did  their  superior  captains, 
and  attendants,  wore  Ashanti  cloths  of  extravagant  price, 


Sex  and  Social  Feeling  117 

from  the  costly  foreign  silks  which  had  been  unravelled  to 
weave  them  in  all  the  varieties  of  color  as  well  as  pattern ; 
they  were  of  incredible  size  and  weight,  and  thrown  over 
the  shoulder  exactly  like  the  Roman  toga;  a  small  silk 
fillet  generally  encircled  their  temples,  and  many  gold 
necklaces,  intricately  wrought,  suspended  Moorish 
charms,  dearly  purchased,  and  enclosed  in  small  square 
cases  of  gold,  silver,  and  curious  embroidery.  vSome 
wore  necklaces  reaching  to  the  waist,  entirely  of  aggry 
beads;  a  band  of  gold  and  beads  encircled  the  knee,  from 
which  several  strings  of  the  same  depended ;  small  circlets 
of  gold,  Hke  guineas,  rings,  and  casts  of  animals  were 
strung  round  their  ankles;  their  sandals  were  of  green, 
red  and  delicate  white  leather;  manillas,  and  rude  lumps 
of  rock  gold  hung  from  their  left  wrists,  which  were  so 
heavily  laden  as  to  be  supported  on  the  head  of  one  of 

their  handsomest  boys [The  king]  wore  a  fillet 

of  aggry  beads  round  his  temples,  a  necklace  of  gold 
cockspur  shells  strung  by  their  larger  ends,  and  over  his 
right  shoulder  a  red  silk  cord,  suspending  three  sapphires 
cased  in  gold;  his  bracelets  were  of  the  richest  mixtures 
of  beads  and  gold,  and  his  fingers  covered  with  rings ;  his 
cloth  was  of  a  dark  green  silk,  a  pointed  diadem  was 
elegantly  painted  in  white  on  his  forehead;  also  a  pattern 
resembling  an  epaulette  on  each  shoulder,  and  an  orna- 
ment like  a  full  blown  rose,  one  leaf  rising  above  another 

until  it  covered  his  whole  breast The  belts  of  the 

guards  behind  his  chair  were  cased  in  gold,  and  covered 
with  small  jaw-bones  of  the  same  metal;  the  elephants' 
tails,  waving  like  a  small  cloud  before  him,  were  spangled 
with  gold,  and  large  plumes  of  feathers  were  flourished 
among  them .     His  eunuch  presided  over  these  attendants, 


ii8  Sex  and  Society 

wearing  only  one  massive  piece  of  gold  about  his  neck; 
the  royal  stool,  entirely  cased  in  gold,  was  displayed  under 
a  splendid  umbrella,  with  drums,  sankos,  horns,  and 
various  musical  instruments,  cased  in  gold,  about  the 
thickness  of  cartridge  paper;  large  circles  of  gold  hung 
by  scarlet  cloth  from  the  swords  of  state ;  .  .  .  .  hatchets 
of  the  same  were  intermixed  with  them;  the  breasts  of 
the  Ochras  and  various  attendants  were  adorned  with 
large  stars,  stools,  crescents,  and  gossamer  wings  of  solid 
gold.^ 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  characteristically 
sexual  method  of  display  and  emotional  appeal 
should  be  associated  with  the  earlier  efforts  at 
adjustment,  both  in  the  individual  and  in  the 
state.  This  method  is  based  on  the  instincts, 
and  just  as  inhibition  and  brain  legislation  follow 
the  instincts  in  point  of  development,  a  rational 
mode  of  control,  individual  and  public,  is  devel- 
oped later  than  the  emotional  form,  or,  at  any 
rate,  is  not  at  first  independent  of  it. 

The  origin  of  mental  impressionability  seems 
to  lie  then,  not  in  one,  but  in  the  two  general 
regions  of  activity — that  connected  with  the 
struggle  for  food  and  that  connected  with  repro- 
duction. The  strain  on  the  attention  in  the  food 
and  conflict  side  of  life  involves  the  development 

I  A.  B.  Ellis,  The  Tshi-s peaking  Peoples  oj  the  Gold  Coast, 
pp.  249  fif. 


Sex  and  Social  Feeling  119 

of  mental  impressionability,  particularly  of  an 
impressionability  on  the  side  of  cognition.  But 
in  addition  we  have  the  impressionability  grow- 
ing out  of  sexual  life  which  has  been  in  question 
above,  and  which  is  more  closely  related  to 
appreciation  than  to  cognition.  And  of  these 
two  aspects  of  impressionability — the  one  grow- 
ing out  of  conflict  and  the  one  growing  out  of 
reproduction — the  latter  has  more  social  possi- 
bilities than  the  former,  because  it  implies  a 
sympathetic  rather  than  an  antagonistic  organic 
attitude.  It  is  certainly  in  virtue  of  susceptibility 
to  the  opinion  of  others  that  society  works — 
through  public  opinion,  fashion,  tradition,  re- 
proof, encouragement,  precept,  and  doctrine — 
to  bring  the  individual  under  control  and  make 
him  a  member  of  society;  and  it  is  doubtful 
whether  this  could  have  been  accomplished  if  a 
peculiar  attitude  of  responsiveness  to  opinion 
had  not  arisen  in  sexual  relations,  reinforcing 
the  more  general  and  cognitive  impressionability. 
Without  this  capacity  to  be  influenced  the  indi- 
vidual would  be  in  the  condition  of  the  hardened 
criminal,  and  society  would  be  impossible. 

This  sex-susceptibility,  which  was  originally 
developed  as  an  accessory  of  reproduction  and 
had  no  social  meaning  whatever,  has  thus,  in 


I20  Sex  and  Society 

the  struggle  of  society  to  obtain  a  hold  on  the 
individual,  become  a  social  factor  of  great  im- 
portance, and  together  with  another  product  of 
sexual  life — the  love  of  offspring — it  is,  I  suspect, 
the  most  immediate  source  of  our  sympathetic 
attitudes  in  general,  and  an  important  force  in 
the  development  of  the  ideal,  moral,  and  aesthetic 
sides  of  life. 

Morality,  sympathy,  and  altruism  are  of  tribal 
origin,  and  have  their  roots  in  (i)  the  love  of 
offspring,  (2)  the  sensitivity  connected  v^^ith 
courtship,  and  (3)  the  comradeship  which  arises 
among  men  in  prosecuting  vital  interests  in 
common.  The  history  of  society  on  the  moral 
and  aesthetic  sides  is  in  great  part  the  history 
of  the  attempt  to  make  the  sympathetic  attitude 
prevail  over  the  more  antagonistic.  But  how 
.far  we  are  still  short  of  this,  and  how  far  our 
sympathy  and  morality  are  still  tribal  and  even 
familial,  is  indicated  by  the  persistence  of  race- 
prejudice  and  of  that 

lust  in  man  no  charm  can  tame 
Of  loudly  publishing  our  neighbor's  shame. 


SEX  AND  PRIMITIVE  INDUSTRY 


SEX  AND  PRIMITIVE  INDUSTRY 

Labor  represents  the  expenditure  of  energy  in 
securing  food,  and  in  making  the  food-process 
constant  and  sure;  and  we  may  well  expect  to 
find  that  the  somatological  differences  shown  to 
exist  between  man  and  woman  will  be  found 
reflected  in  the  labors  of  primitive  society. 

An  examination  of  the  ethnological  facts  shows 
that  among  the  primitive  races  men  are  engaged 
in  activities  requiring  strength,  violence,  speed, 
and  the  craft  and  foresight  which  follow  from  the 
contacts  and  strains  of  their  more  motor  life; 
and  the  slow,  unspasmodic,  routine,  stationary 
occupations  are  the  part  of  woman.  Animal 
life  is  itself  motor,  elusive,  and  violent,  and  both 
by  disposition  and  of  necessity  man's  attention 
and  activities  are  devoted  first  of  all  to  the 
animal  process.  It  is  the  most  stimulating  and 
dangerous  portion  of  his  environment,  and 
affords  the  most  immediate  and  concrete  reward. 

Contrasted  with  this  violent  and  intermittent 
activity  of  man,  we  find  with  equal  uniformity 
that  the  attention  of  woman  is  directed  prin- 
cipally to  the  vegetable  environment.  Man's 
attention  to  hunting  and  fighting,  and  woman's 

123 


124  Sex  and  Society 

attention  to  agriculture  and  attendant  stationary 
industries,  is  so  generally  a  practice  of  primitive 
society  that  we  may  well  infer  the  habit  is  based 
on  a  physiological  difference.  An  explanation 
of  exceptions  to  the  rule,  and  the  departure  from 
it  in  the  later  life  of  the  race,  we  shall  have  to 
seek  in  changes  in  the  social  habits  of  the  race. 

The  old  observation,  that  "woman  was  first 
a  beast  of  burden,  then  a  domestic  animal,  then 
a  slave,  then  a  servant,  and  last  of  all  a  minor," 
represents  the  usual  view  of  the  condition  of 
woman  taken  by  early  missionaries  and  travelers. 
This  view  is,  as  we  shall  see,  out  of  focus,  but 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  labors  of  early  woman 
were  exacting,  incessant,  varied,  and  hard,  and 
that,  if  a  catalogue  of  primitive  forms  of  labor 
were  made,  woman  would  be  found  doing  five 
things  where  man  did  one. 

An  Australian  of  the  Kurnai  tribe  once  said 
to  Fison:  "A  man  hunts,  spears  fish,  fights, 
and  sits  about ; " '  and  this  is  a  very  good  general 
statement  of  the  male  activities  of  primitive 
society  the  world  over,  if  we  add  one  other  activ- 
ity— the  manufactre  of  weapons.  On  the  other 
hand,  Bonwick's  statement  of  the  labors  of 
Tasmanian  women  is  a  typical  one : 

•  Fison  and  Howitt,  Kamilaroi  and  Kurnai,  p.  206. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Industry  125 

In  addition  to  the  necessary  duty  of  looking  after  the 
children,  they  had  to  provide  all  the  food  for  the 
household  excepting  that  derived  from  the  chase  of  the 
kangaroo.  They  climbed  up  hills  for  the  opossum, 
delved  in  the  ground  with  their  sticks  for  yams,  native 
bread,  and  nutritive  roots,  groped  about  the  rocks  for 
shellfish,  dived  beneath  the  sea  for  oysters,  and  fished  for 
the  finny  tribe.  In  addition  to  this,  they  carried,  on  their 
frequent  tramps,  the  household  stuff  in  native  baskets  of 
their  own  manufacture.  Their  affectionate  partners 
would  even  pile  upon  their  burdens  sundry  spears  and 
waddies  not  required  for  present  service,  and  would 
command  their  help  to  rear  the  breakwind,  and  to  raise 
the  fire.  They  acted,  moreover,  as  cooks  to  the  estab- 
lishment, and  were  occasionally  regaled,  at  the  termina- 
tion of  a  feast,  with  the  leavings  of  their  gorged  masters.^ 

Among  the  Andamanese,  while  the  men  go  into 
the  jungle  to  hunt  pigs,  the  women  fetch  drink- 
ing water  and  firewood,  catch  shellfish,  make 
fishing  nets  and  baskets,  spin  thread,  and  cook 
the  food  ready  for  the  return  of  the  men.^  In 
New  Caledonia  "girls  work  in  the  plantations, 
boys  learn  to  fight.  "^  In  Africa  the  case  is 
similar.  Among  the  Bushmen  (to  take  only 
one  example  from  this  continent)  the  woman 
"weaves  the  frail  mats  and  rushes  under  which 

1  Bonwick,  Daily  Life  of  the  Tasmanians,  p.  55. 

2  Owen,  Transactions  of  the  Ethnological  Society,  New  Series, 
Vol.  II,  p.  36. 

3  Turner,  Nineteen  Years  in  Polynesia,  p.  424. 


126  Sex  and  Society 

her  family  finds  a  little  shelter  from  the  wind 
and  from  the  heat  of  the  sun,"  constructs  a 
fireplace  of  three  round  stones,  fashions  and 
bakes  a  few  earthenware  pots.  When  her 
household  labors  are  done,  she  gathers  roots, 
locusts,  etc.,  from  the  fields.  On  the  march 
she  frequently  carries  a  child,  a  mat,  an  earthen 
pot,  some  ostrich  eggshells,  and  "a  few  ragged 
skins  bundled  on  her  head  or  shoulder,"  while 
the  man  carries  only  his  spear,  bow,  and  quiver. ' 
The  conditions  among  the  American  Indians 
were  practically  the  same.  Cotton  ]Mather  said 
of  the  Indians  of  Massachusetts:  "The  men 
are  most  abominably  slothful,  making  their  poor 
squaws  or  wives  to  plant,  and  dress,  and  barn, 
and  beat  their  corn,  and  build  their  wigwams 
for  them  i"""  and  Jones,  referring  to  the  women 
of  southern  tribes,  says: 

Doomed  to  perpetual  drudgery  and  to  that  subordinate 
position  to  which  woman  is  always  consigned  where 
civilization  and  religion  are  not,  she  was  little  less  than  a 
beast  of  burden,  busy  with  cooking,  the  manufacture  of 
pottery,  mats,  baskets,  moccasins,  etc.,  a  tiller  of  the 
ground,  a  nurse  for  her  own  children,  and  at  all  times  a 
servant  to  the  commands  and  passions  of  the  stronger  sex. 3 

I  Arbousset  and  Daumas,  Voyage  and  Exploration,  p.  249; 
Maffat,  Missionary  Labors  and  Scenes  in  Southern  Africa,  p.  53. 

'  Schoolcraft,  History,  Condition,  and  Prospects  0}  the  Indian 
Tribes  oj  the  United  States,  Part  I,  p.  285. 

3  Jones,  Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Itidians,  p.  70. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Industry  127 

Primitive  woman  was  therefore  undoubtedly 
very  busy,  but  I  have  seen  no  reason  to  beheve 
that  she  considered  her  condition  unfortunate. 
Our  great-grandmothers  were  also  very  busy, 
but  they  were  apparently  not  discontented. 
There  was  no  reason  why  woman  should  not 
labor  in  primitive  society.  The  forces  which 
withdrew  her  from  labor  were  expressions  of 
later  social  conditions.  Speaking  largely,  these 
considerations  were  the  desire  of  men  to  preserve 
the  beauty  of  women,  and  their  desire  to  with- 
draw them  from  association  with  other  men. 
It  is  the  connection  in  thought  and  fact  between 
idle  and  beautiful  women  and  wealth,  indeed, 
which  has  frequently  led  to  the  keeping  of  a 
superfluous  number  of  such  women  as  a  sign  of 
wealth. 

The  exemption  of  women  from,  labor,  in  short, 
implied  an  economic  surplus  which  early  society 
did  not  possess.  The  lowxr  classes  of  modern 
society  do  not  possess  it  either,  and  there  the 
women  are  still  "drudges,"  if  we  want  to  use  that 
word  about  a  situation  which  is  normal,  in  view 
of  the  economic  condition  of  the  men  and  women 
concerned.  It  was  necessary  that  primitive 
society,  in  the  absence  of  elaborate  machinery 
for  doing  things,   in  unstable   and   precarious 


128  Sex  and  Society 

food  conditions,  and  without  resources  accumu- 
lated from  preceding  generations,  should  utilize 
all  its  forces.  The  struggle  for  existence,  in  its 
harshest  sense,  was  but  little  mitigated,  and  no 
group  could  have  spared  at  all  the  industry  of 
women.  Even  if  primitive  life  had  been  as 
hard  as  Hobbes  would  have  it,  "solitary,  poor, 
nasty,  brutish,  and  short,"  mere  negative,  habit- 
ual hardness  and  miserableness  of  condition 
did  not  get  the  attention  of  primitive  society 
particularly.  Their  life  was  hard,  as  we  look 
at  it,  not  as  they  looked  at  it.  They  could  not 
compare  themselves  with  the  future,  and  com- 
parisons with  the  past  were  doubtless  in  their 
favor.  The  best  returns  from  activity  will  of 
course  follow  when  each  individual  is  doing 
something  he  is  specially  well  fitted  to  do,  and 
natural  selection  seems  to  have  seen  to  it  that 
primitive  society  should  so  divide  the  labor  as 
best  to  utilize  social  energy  by  assigning  to  men 
the  tasks  requiring  violent  exertion,  and  to 
women  those  requiring  constant  attention. 

But  was  not  primitive  man  very  lazy,  and  did 
he  not  do  fewer  things  than  he  reasonably  could 
have  done  ?  If  we  mean  by  lazy  an  aversion  to 
certain  types  of  action,  primitive  man  was  doubt- 
less lazy;  but  if  we  mean  an  aversion  to  all  kinds 


Sex  and  Primitive  Industry  129 

of  exertion,  he  certainly  was  not  lazy.  He  was 
so  thoroughly  aroused  by  certain  stimulations 
and  so  exhausted  by  the  expenditure  of  energy 
in  reacting  to  these  stimulations  that  periods  of 
recuperation,  or  ''sitting  about,"  were  necessary. 
Heckenwelder's  remarks  on  the  labor  of  men 
and  women  among  the  Indians  of  Pennsylvania 
are  very  instructive,  although  they  relate  to 
tribes  which  had  come  under  white  influences  to 
some  extent: 

The  work  of  the  women  is  not  hard  or  difficult.  They 
are  both  able  and  wilUng  to  do  it,  and  always  perform  it 
with  cheerfulness.  ^Mothers  teach  their  daughters  those 
duties  \\hich  common  sense  would  otherwise  point  out  to 
them  when  grown  up.  Within  doors  their  labor  is  very 
trifling;  there  is  seldom  more  than  one  pot  or  kettle  to 
attend  to.  There  is  no  scrubbing  of  the  house,  and  but 
little  to  wash,  and  that  not  often.  Their  principal  occu- 
pations are  to  cut  and  fetch  in  the  firewood,  till  the  ground, 
sow  and  reap  the  grain,  and  pound  the  corn  in  mortars  for 
their  pottage,  and  to  make  bread  which  they  bake  in  the 
ashes.  When  going  on  a  journey  or  to  hunting  camps 
with  their  husbands,  if  they  have  no  horses,  they  carry  a 
pack  on  their  backs  which  often  appears  heavier  than  it 
really  is;  it  generally  consists  of  a  blanket,  a  dressed 
deer  skin  for  moccasins,  a  few  articles  of  kitchen  furniture, 
as  a  kettle,  bowl,  or  dish,  with  spoons,  and  some  bread, 
corn,  salt,  etc.,  for  their  nourishment.  I  have  never 
known  an  Indian  woman  complain  of  the  hardship  of 
carrying  this  burden,  which  serves  for  their  own  comfort 


130  Sex  and  Society 

and  support  as  well  as  of  their  husbands.  The  tilling  of 
the  ground  at  home,  getting  of  firewood,  and  pounding 
of  corn  in  mortars,  is  frequently  done  by  female  parties, 
much  in  the  manner  of  those  husking,  quilting,  and  other 
frolics  (as  they  are  called)  in  some  parts  of  the  United 

States [When    accompanying    her    husband    on 

the  hunt  the  woman]  takes  pains  to  dry  as  much  meat  as 
she  can,  that  none  may  be  lost;  she  carefully  puts  the 
tallow  up,  assists  in  drying  the  skins,  gathers  as  much  wild 
hemp  as  possible  for  the  purpose  of  making  strings, 
carrying  bands,  bags,  and  other  necessary  articles; 
collects  roots  for  dyeing;  in  short,  does  everything  in  her 
power  to  leave  no  care  to  her  husband  but  the  important 
one  of  providing  meat  for  the  family.  After  all,  the 
fatigue  of  the  women  is  by  no  means  to  be  compared  to 
that  of  the  men.  Their  hard  and  difficult  employments 
are  periodical  and  of  short  duration,  while  their  husbands' 
labors  are  constant  and  severe  in  the  extreme.  Were  a 
man  to  take  upon  himself  a  part  of  his  wife's  duty,  in 
addition  to  his  own,  he  must  necessarily  sink  under  the 
load,  and  of  course  his  family  must  suffer  with  him. 
On  his  exertions  as  a  hunter  their  existence  depends;  in 
order  to  be  able  to  follow  that  rough  employment  with 
success,  he  must  keep  his  limbs  as  supple  as  he  can,  he 
must  avoid  hard  labor  as  much  as  possible,  that  his  joints 
may  not  become  stiffened,  and  that  he  may  preserve  the 
necessary  strength  and  agility  of  body  to  enable  him  to 
pursue  the  chase,  and  bear  the  unavoidable  hardships 
attendant  on  it ;  for  the  fatigues  of  hunting  wear  out  the 
body  and  constitution  far  more  than  manual  labor. 
Neither  creeks  nor  rivers,  whether  shallow  or  deep, 
frozen  or  free  from  ice,  must  be  an  obstacle  to  the  hunter 


Sex  and  Primitive  Industry  131 

when  in  pursuit  of  a  wounded  deer,  bear,  or  other  animal, 
as  is  often  the  case.  Nor  has  he  then  leisure  to  think  on 
the  state  of  his  body,  and  to  consider  whether  his  blood  is 
not  too  much  heated  to  plunge  without  danger  into  the 
cold  stream,  since  the  game  he  is  in  pursuit  of  is  running 
off  from  him  with  full  speed.  Many  dangerous  accidents 
often  befall  him  both  as  a  hunter  and  a  warrior  (for  he  is 
both),  and  are  seldom  unattended  with  painful  conse- 
quences, such  as  rheumatism  or  consumption  of  the  lungs, 
for  which  the  sweat-house,  on  which  they  so  much  depend, 
and  to  which  they  often  resort  for  relief,  especially  after  a 
fatiguing  hunt  or  warlike  excursion,  is  not  alwavs  a  sure 
preservative  or  effectual  remedy.^ 

The  male  and  female  come  together  by  sexual 
attraction,  and  the  chances  of  life  are  increased 
through  association  which  permits  each  to  do 
that  class  of  things  which  by  reason  of  its  somatic 
habit  it  can  do  most  effectively.  Man's  exploits 
were,  however,  of  a  more  striking  and  sensa- 
tional character,  appealed  to  the  emotions  more, 
and  secured  the  attention  and  the  admiration 
of  the  public  more,  than  the  "drudgery"  of  the 
woman.  The  unusual  esteem  given  by  society 
to  the  destructive  activities  of  the  male  can  be 
very  well  understood  in  connection  with  a  refer- 
ence to  the  emotions.  The  emotions  of  anger, 
fear,  and  joy,  to  take  only  these  examples,  repre- 

1  John  Hechen welder,  History,  Manners,  and  Customs  of  the 

Indian  Nations,  pp.  155-58. 


132  Sex  and  Society 

sent  a  physiological  change  in  the  organism  in 
the  presence  of  dangerous  situations.  Anger 
is  a  physiological  preparation  to  resist,  to  crush 
a  dangerous  object;  fear  is  an  organic  expression 
of  inadequacy  to  avert  the  danger;  and  joy,  in 
one  of  its  aspects,  is  an  organic  revulsion  answer- 
ing to  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  danger 
is  safely  passed.  The  same  type  of  situation 
incessantly  recurring  in  the  life  of  the  race,  and 
constantly  met  by  the  same  organic  changes, 
has  resulted  in  a  fixed  relation  of  certain  types 
of  situation  to  certain  types  of  emotion. 

The  forms  of  activity  recognized  first  of  all 
in  the  consciousness  of  the  race  as  virtuous  are 
simply  those  which  successfully  avert  danger 
and  secure  safety.  Courage,  intrepidity,  endur- 
ance, skill,  sagacity,  an  indomitable  spirit,  and  a 
willingness  to  die  in  fight,  are  virtues  of  the  first 
importance,  vitally  indispensable  to  the  society 
in  conflict  with  man  and  beast,  and  they  are 
virtues  of  which  man  is  by  his  organic  constitu- 
tion, by  the  very  fact  of  his  capacity  for  the  rapid 
destruction  of  energy,  particularly  capable. 
Man's  exploits,  therefore,  first  of  all  had  social 
attention. 

The  occupations  of  women  were  not  of  an 
emotional  type,  and,  apart  from  sexual  life,  they 


Sex  and  Primitive  Industry  133 

got  their  excitements  as  spectators  and  approvers 
of  the  motor  activities  of  the  men.  The  Hebrew 
girls  who  went  out  w^ith  harps  and  .timbrils  to 
meet  a  victorious  army,  and  sang  that  Saul  had 
slain  his  thousands,  but  David  his  ten  thousands, 
represent  the  relation  between  mighty  deeds  and 
social  attention  and  approval.  Thus  the  atten- 
tion which  the  organism  gives  to  situations  of 
danger,  through  violent  physiological  readjust- 
ments fitted  to  meet  the  situation,  has  a  parallel 
in  the  attention  given  by  society  to  social  means 
of  meeting  situations  dangerous  to  the  common 
life  and  welfare.  We  have  a  very  plain  continu- 
ance of  the  primitive  appreciation  of  the  virtues 
of  violence  in  the  worship  of  military  men  nowa- 
days, and  it  is  significant,  also,  that  the  appre- 
ciation of  the  fighting  quality  still  reaches  its 
most  animated  expression  in  women — the  sex 
constitutionally  most  in  need  of  social  protection. 
It  can  hardly  be  denied,  therefore,  that  man  both 
enjoyed  this  exciting  kind  of  performance  more 
than  the  labors  which  women  were  connected 
with,  and  that  the  women  justified  him  (if  we 
assume  that  they  passed  any  judgment  on  his 
conduct  at  all)  in  refraining  from  doing  many 
things  which  he  could  have  done  perfectly  well 
without  constitutional  hurt. 


134  Sex  and  Society 

The  abundance  of  the  labors  of  primitive 
woman  seems  to  be  accounted  for  further  by  the 
fact  that  a  stationary  life  is  the  condition  of  a 
greater  variety  of  industrial  expressions  than 
a  life  inclined  to  motor  expressions.  It  is  notor- 
ious that  a  wandering  life  is  not  favorable  to  the 
development  of  industries.  Industries,  in  their 
very  nature,  handle  and  shape  stationary  stuffs, 
for  the  most  part,  and  woman  developed  the 
constructive  or  industrial  activities  as  a  simple 
consequence  of  her  more  stationary  condition 
of  life.  The  formation  of  habit  is  largely  a 
matter  of  attention,  and  the  attention  of  woman 
being  limited  by  her  bodily  habit  and  the  pres- 
ence of  children  to  objects  lying  closer  at  hand, 
her  energies  found  expression  in  connection  with 
these  objects. 

First  of  all,  the  house  was  identified  with 
woman.  The  home  was,  in  its  simplest  terms, 
the  place  where  the  wandering  male  rejoined 
the  female.  It  was  a  cave,  or  a  hollow  tree, 
or  a  frail  structure.  It  was  sought  or  made 
with  reference  to  safety  and  comfort,  particu- 
larly with  reference  to  the  comfort  of  the  young. 
Recognizing  the  greater  interest  of  the  woman 
in  the  child,  it  is  evident  that  shelter  was  a  more 
important  consideration  to  her  than  to  the  man. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Industry  135 

The  house  is,  indeed,  a  very  fit  accompaniment 
of  the  stationary  habit  of  woman,  and  usually 
we  find  the  most  primitive  tribes  recognizing 
her  greater  interest  in  it.  Even  when  the  houses 
are  built  by  men,  they  are  generally  owned  by 
the  women.  Man  as  a  solitary  animal  might, 
of  course,  make  himself  a  shelter,  but  he  had  a 
particular  interest  in  being  about  the  shelter  of 
woman,  and  it  was  under  her  shelter,  after  all, 
that  children  were  born  and  that  society  accumu- 
lated numbers.  This  resulted  in  the  maternal 
system  and  the  recognition  of  woman  as  the  head 
of  the  household,  and  the  owner  of  the  house. 
So,  when  the  Indian  squaw  carries  the  wigwam 
on  the  march,  she  is  carrying  her  private  prop- 
erty and  one  of  her  own  particular  appurte- 
nances. Contrary  to  the  phrase  which  I  quoted 
above,  man  is  rather,  in  the  sense  in  which  I  am 
now  speaking,  the  domesticated  animal.  He 
has  been  inducted  into  the  family.  The  estufas 
of  the  Pueblo  Indians  and  the  men's  clubhouses 
in  Africa  represent  the  failure  of  men  to  assimi- 
late completely  in  a  society  which  was  essentially 
female  in  its  genius,  and  the  club  still  stands  for 
a  difference  in  interest  between  the  male  and 
the  female. 
From  the  house,  or  shelter,  as  a  base,  woman 


136  Sex  and  Society 

got  such  connections  with  food  as  she  might. 
For  it  is  an  error  to  suppose  that  she  was  in  the 
most  primitive  times  entirely  dependent  on  man 
for  food.  She  appears  to  have  been  quite  as  active 
in  developing  food  surroundings  in  her  way  as 
man  was  in  his.  The  plant  world  gave  her  the 
best  returns  for  the  effort  which  she  could  make. 
She  beat  out  the  seeds  of  plants,  digged  out  the 
roots  and  tubers  which  the  monkeys  and  pigs 
were  seen  to  grub  for  most  eagerly, '  strained  the 
poisonous  juices  from  the  cassava  and  made 
bread  of  the  residue,  and  it  was  under  her 
attention  that  a  southern  grass  was  developed 
into  what  we  know  as  Indian  corn.  Looking 
back  on  this  process,  we  call  it  the  domestica- 
tion of  plants,  and  we  are  likely  to  regard  it  as  a 
more  conscious  process  than  it  really  was.  It 
was  the  result  of  her  conversion  to  her  own  uses 
of  the  most  available  portion  of  her  environment. 
In  view  of  her  physiological  habit,  the  animal 
environment  was,  for  the  most  part,  out  of  the 
question,  and  her  attention  was  of  necessity 
directed  to  the  plant  side.  While  less  remunera- 
tive in  its  beginnings  than  the  animal  side  of  the 
process,  it  was,  perhaps,  at  all  times  less  pre- 
carious and  uncertain,  and  we  find  in  conse- 

'  Ratzel,  History  0}  Mankind,  Vol.  II,  p.  289. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Industry  137 

quence  that  the  economic  dependence  of  man 
on  woman  is  as  evident  as  her  dependence  on 
him.  A  dinner  of  herbs  is  a  humbler  resort 
than  a  roast  of  antelope,  but  there  was  less 
doubt  that  it  would  be  forthcoming,  and  primi- 
tive man  was  often,  when  in  hard  luck,  depend- 
ent on  the  activities  of  his  wife,  or  the  females 
of  the  group. 

The  domestication  of  animals  appears  simi- 
larly to  be  the  following-up  by  man  of  his  con- 
nections with  animal  life,  when  this  life  began  to 
be  less  abundant.  It  is  probable  that  the  practice 
originated  in  the  habit  of  taking  the  young  of 
animals  home  as  pets,  and  there  is  apparently  a 
point  of  difference  between  the  attention  of  the 
men  and  the  women  given  to  animals  once  taken 
into  the  household.  The  men  were  interested 
in  these  animals  as  reviving  in  memory  the 
emotional  situations  of  hunting  life,  and  also  in 
the  clever  and  imitable  accuracy  of  co-ordination 
and  superhuman  development  of  sense-percep- 
tions, while  there  was  always  in  the  attitude  of 
woman  toward  these  animals  a  touch  of  maternal 
feeling,  such  as  is  still  expended  on  the  "harm- 
less, necessary  cat."  And,  in  a  small  way, 
woman  also  contributed  to  the  domestication  of 
animals  by  giving  them  suck,  partly  as  an  eco- 


138  Sex  and  Society 

nomic  investment.  In  Tahiti  and  New  Britain, 
for  example,  the  women  suckle  the  pigs,  and  the 
old  women  feed  them.'  Aside  from  this,  the 
connections  which  primitive  woman  has  with 
animal  life  is  very  slight.  Worms  and  insects, 
shellfish,  and  even  fish  she  may  capture,  but 
but  after  this  her  relation  to  animal  life  is  in 
caring  for  the  flesh  and  skins  turned  over  to  her 
by  the  man. 

It  was  a  very  general  early  practice  that, 
when  man  had  kiUed  his  game  and  brought  it 
home,  he  was  not  concerned  in  the  further  hand- 
ling of  it.  He  did  not,  indeed,  in  all  cases  bring 
it  home,  but  sent  his  wife  after  it.  The  Indians 
killed  buffalo  only  as  fast  as  the  squaws  could 
cut  them  up  and  care  for  the  meat,  and  the  men 
of  the  Eskimos  would  not  draw  the  seal  from  the 
water  after  spearing  it.  Exhausted  by  extraor- 
dinary efforts,  the  man  may  well  have  left  the 
dressing  of  the  animal  upon  occasion  to  his  wife, 
and,  exhausted  or  not,  he  soon  fell  into  the  habit 
of  doing  so.  It  thus  turns  out  that  all  labors 
relating  to  the  preparation  of  food,  and  to  the 
utilizations  of  the  side-products  of  food  stuffs, 
are  apt  to  be  found  in  the  hands  of  the  women. 

Vessels  are  necessary  in  cooking,  both  to  carry 

I  Ratzel,  loc.  cii.,  Vol.  I,  p.  253, 


Sex  and  Primitive  Industry  139 

and  hold  water,  and  to  store  the  surplus  of  food, 
both  vegetable  and  animal,  and  the  woman, 
feeling  the  need  of  these  in  connection  with  what 
she  has  set  about  doing,  weaves  baskets  and 
makes  pottery.  Fetching  w^ood,  grinding  corn, 
tanning  the  hides,  and  in  the  main  the  prepara- 
tion of  clothing,  follow  rather  necessarily  from 
her  relation  to  the  raw  products.  Spinning  and 
weaving  and  dyeing  are  related  closely  to  the 
vegetable  world  to  begin  with,  and  it  is  to  be 
expected  that  they  would  be  developed  by  the 
women.  But  man  is  very  deeply  interested  in 
clothing  on  the  ornamental  side,  and  the  farther 
back  we  go  in  society,  the  more  this  holds, 
and  sometimes,  particularly  in  Africa,  since  the 
domestication  of  oxen  there,  the  men  prepare 
the  leather  and  do  the  sewing,  even  for  the 
women.  There  is,  indeed,  nothing  in  the  nature 
of  sewing  to  make  it  a  woman's  occupation.  It 
involves  a  relation  of  the  hand  to  the  eye — 
similar  to  that  which  the  man  is  always  prac- 
ticing and  using,  i.  e.,  reaching  a  given  point, 
perhaps  with  mechanical  aids,  through  the 
mediation  of  these  two  organs.  It  is  a  motor 
matter,  therefore,  and  one  of  the  first  industries 
undertaken  by  men.  There  are  many  excep- 
tions to  the  general  statement  that  early  manu- 


I40  Sex  and  Society 

facture  (weapons  excepted)  was  in  the  hands  of 
women,  but  the  exceptions  may  be  regarded 
as  variations  due  to  the  fixation  of  habit  through 
single  and  peculiar  incidents,  or  they  are  the 
beginning  of  the  later  period  when  man  begins 
to  practice  woman's  activities. 

The  primitive  division  of  labor  among  the 
sexes  was  not  in  any  sense  an  arrangement 
dictated  by  the  men,  but  a  habit  into  which  both 
men  and  w^omen  fell,  to  begin  with,  through 
their  difference  of  organization — a  socially  useful 
habit  whose  rightness  no  one  questioned  and 
whose  origin  no  one  thought  of  looking  into. 
There  is,  moreover,  a  tendency  in  habits  to 
become  more  fixed  than  is  inherently  necessary. 
The  man  who  does  any  woman's  work  is  held  in 
contempt  not  only  by  men,  but  by  women. 

As  to  the  Indian  women,  they  are  far  from  complaining 
of  their  lot.  On  the  contrary,  they  would  despise  their 
husbands  could  they  stoop  to  any  menial  office,  and  would 
think  it  conveyed  an  imputation  upon  their  own  conduct. 
It  is  the  worst  insult  one  virago  can  cast  upon  another  in 
a  moment  of  altercation.  "Infamous  woman,"  will  she 
cry,  "I  have  seen  your  husband  carrying  wood  into  the 
lodge  to  make  the  fire.  Where  was  his  squaw,  that  he 
should  be  obliged  to  make  a  woman  of  himself !  "^ 

That  men  are  similarly  prejudiced  against 

'  Irving,  "Astoria,"  Works,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  134. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Industry  141 

women's  taking  up  male  occupations  we  know 
from  modern  industrial  history,  without  looking 
to  ethnological  evidence.  Habit  was,  however, 
in  another  regard  favorable  to  woman,  since 
what  she  was  constantly  associated  with  and 
expended  her  activities  upon  was  looked  upon 
as  hers.  Through  her  identification  w^ith  the 
industrial  process  she  became,  in  fact,  a  prop- 
erty-owner. This  result  did  not  spring  from 
the  maternal  system;  but  both  this  and  the 
maternal  system  were  the  results  of  her  bodUy 
habit,  and  the  social  habits  flowing  from  this. 

When  the  woman  as  cultivator  was  almost  the  sole 
creator  of  property  in  land,  she  held  in  respect  of  this 
also  a  position  of  advantage.  In  the  transactions  of 
North  American  tribes  with  the  colonial  governments 
many  deeds  of  assignments  bear  female  signatures,  which 
doubtless  must  also  be  referred  to  inheritance  through 
the  mother.^ 

Among  the  Spokanes  "all  household  goods  are 
considered  as  the  wife's  property.'"*  The  stores 
of  roots  and  berries  laid  up  by  the  Salish  women 
for  a  time  of  scarcity  "  are  looked  upon  as  belong- 
ing to  them  personally,  and  their  husbands  will 
not  touch  them  without  having  previously  ob- 

I  Ratzel,  loc.  cit.,  Vol.  II,  p.  130. 

»  Bancroft,  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  Stales,  Vol.  I,  p.  277. 


142  Sex  and  Society 

tained  their  permission."'  Among  the  Men- 
omini  a  woman  in  good  circumstances  would 
possess  as  many  as  from  1,200  to  1,500  birch- 
bark  vessels,  and  all  of  these  would  be  in  use 
during  the  season  of  sugar-making.*  In  the 
New  Mexican  pueblo, 

what  comes  from  outside  the  house,  as  soon  as  it  is  inside 
is  put  under  the  immediate  control  of  the  woman.  My 
host  at  Cochiti,  New  Mexico,  could  not  sell  an  ear  of  corn 
or  a  string  of  chile  without  the  consent  of  his  thirteen-year- 
old  daughter,  Ignacia,  who  kept  house  for  her  widowed 
father.  In  Cholula  district  (and  probably  all  over 
Mexico)  the  man  has  acquired  more  power,  and  the 
storehouse  is  no  longer  controlled  by  the  wife.  But  the 
kitchen  remains  her  domain;  and  its  aboriginal  designa- 
tion, tezcalli  (place,  or  house,  of  her  who  grinds),  is  still 
perfectly  justified.-^ 

A  plurality  of  wives  is  required  by  a  good  hunter, 
since  in  the  labors  of  the  chase  women  are  of  great  service 
to  their  husbands.  An  Indian  with  one  wife  cannot 
amass  property,  as  she  is  constantly  occupied  in  house- 
hold labors,  and  has  not  time  for  preparing  skins  for 
trading.'* 

1  Featherman,  Social  History  of  Mankind:  Aoneo-M aranon- 
ians,  p.  364. 

2  W.  J.  Hoffman,  "The  Menomini  Indians,"  Fourteenth  Re- 
port of  the  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology,  p.  288. 

3 A.  F.  Bandelier,  "Report  of  an  Archaeological  Tour  in 
Mexico,"  Papers  of  the  Archaeological  Institute  of  America,  Vol. 
II,  p.  138. 

*  Dorsey,  "Siouxan  Sociologj',"  Fifteenth  Report  of  tlie  Bureau 
of  American  Ethnology,  p.  225. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Industry  143 

The  outcome  of  this  closer  attention  of  the 
woman  to  the  industrial  life  is  well  seen  among 
the  ancient  Hebrews : 

A  virtuous  woman  ....  seeketh  wool  and  flax,  and 
worketh  willingly  with  her  hands.  She  is  like  the  mer- 
chant ships:  she  bringeth  her  food  from  afar.  She 
riseth  also  while  it  is  yet  night,  and  giveth  meat  to  her 
household,  and  their  task  to  her  maidens.  She  consider- 
eth  a  field  and  buyeth  it;  with  the  fruit  of  her  hands  she 

planteth    a    vineyard She    perceiveth    that    her 

merchandise  is  profitable:  her  lamp  goeth  not  out  by 
night.  She  layeth  her  hands  to  the  distaff,  and  her 
hands  hold  the  spindle.  She  spreadeth  out  her  hand  to 
the  poor;  yea,  she  reacheth  forth  her  hands  to  the  needy. 
She  is  not  afraid  of  the  snow  for  her  household ;  for  all  her 
household  are  clothed  with  scarlet.  She  maketh  for  her- 
self carpets  of  tapestry;  her  clothing  is  fine  linen  and 
purple.  Her  husband  is  known  in  the  gates,  when  he 
sitteth  among  the  elders  of  the  land.  She  maketh  linen 
garments  and  selleth  them;  and  delivereth  girdles  unto 
the  merchant.* 

There  must  come  a  time  in  the  history  of 
every  group  when  wild  game  becomes  scarce. 
This  time  is  put  off  by  successive  migrations  to 
wilder  regions;  but  the  rapid  increase  of  popu- 
lation makes  any  continent  inadequate  to  the 
supply  of  food  through  the  chase  indefinitely. 
Morgan  estimates  that  the  state  of  New  York, 

'  Prov.  31: 10-24. 


144  S^^  ^^  Society 

with  its  47,000  square  miles,  never  contained  at 
any  one  time  more  than  25,000  Indians. '  Sooner 
or  later  the  man  must  either  fall  back  on  the 
process  represented  by  the  women,  taking  up 
and  developing  her  industries,  or  he  must  change 
his  attitude  toward  animal  life.  In  fact,  he 
generally  does  both.  He  enters  into  a  sort  of 
alliance  with  animal  life,  or  with  certain  of  its 
forms,  feeding  them,  and  tending  them,  and 
breeding  them;  and  he  applies  his  katabolic 
energies  to  the  pursuits  of  woman,  organizing 
and  advancing  them.  Whether  the  animal  or 
the  plant  life  receives  in  the  end  more  attention 
is  a  matter  turning  on  environment  and  other 
circumstances. 

When  the  destructive  male  propensities  have 
exhausted  or  diminished  the  food  stores  on  the 
animal  side,  and  man  is  forced  to  fall  back  on 
the  constructive  female  process,  we  find  that  he 
brings  greater  and  better  organizing  force  to  bear 
on  the  industries.  Male  enterprises  have  de- 
manded concerted  action.  In  order  to  surround 
a  buffalo  herd,  or  to  make  a  successful  assault,  or 
even  to  row  a  large  boat,  organization  and  leader- 
ship are  necessary.  To  attack  under  leaders, 
give  signal  cries,  station  sentinels,  punish  offend- 

'  Morgan,  Ancient  Society,  p.  iii. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Industry  145 

ers,  is,  indeed,  a  part  of  the  discipline  even  of 
animal  groups.  The  organizing  capacity  devel- 
oped by  the  male  in  human  society  in  connection 
with  violent  ways  of  life  is  transferred  to  labor. 
The  preparation  of  land  for  agriculture  was 
undertaken  by  the  men  on  a  large  scale.  The 
jungle  was  cleared,  water  courses  were  diverted 
and  highways  prepared  for  the  transportation 
of  the  products  of  labor. 

But  more  than  this,  perhaps,  man  brought 
with  him  to  the  industrial  occupations  all  the 
skill  in  fashioning  force-appliances  acquired 
through  his  intense,  constant,  and  long-con- 
tinued attention  to  the  devising  and  manufac- 
ture of  weapons.  Man  is  relatively  a  feeble 
animal,  but  he  made  various  and  ingenious 
cutting,  jabbing,  and  bruising  appliances  to 
compensate.  His  life  was  a  life  of  strains,  both 
giving  and  taking,  and  under  the  stress  he 
had  developed  offensive  and  defensive  weapons. 
There  is,  however,  no  radical  difference,  simply 
a  difference  in  object  and  intensity  of  stimu- 
lus, between  handling  and  making  weapons 
and  handling  and  making  tools.  So,  when  man 
was  obliged  to  turn  his  attention  to  the  agricul- 
ture and  industries  practiced  by  primitive  woman 
he  brought  all  his  technological  skill  and  a  part 


146  Sex  and  Society 

of  his  technological  interest  to  bear  on  the  new 
problems.  Women  had  been  able  to  thrust  a 
stick  into  the  earth  and  drop  the  seed  and  await 
a  meager  harvest.  When  man  turned  his  atten- 
tion to  this  matter,  his  ingenuity  eventually 
worked  out  a  remarkable  combination  of  the 
animal,  mineral,  and  vegetable  kingdoms:  with 
the  iron  plow,  drawn  by  the  ox,  he  upturned 
the  face  of  the  earth,  and  produced  food  stuffs 
in  excess  of  immediate  demands,  thus  creating 
the  conditions  of  culture. 

The  destructive  habits  of  the  male  nature  were 
thus  converted  under  the  stress  of  diminishing 
nutrition  to  the  habits  represented  primarily  by 
the  constructive  female  nature,  and  the  inventive 
faculty  developed  through  attention  to  destruc- 
tive mechanical  aids  was  now  applied  equally  to 
the  invention  of  constructive  mechanical  aids. 


SEX  AND  PRIMITIVE  MORALITY 


SEX  AND  PRIMITIVE  MORALITY 

The  function  of  morality  is  to  regulate  the 
activities  of  associated  life  so  that  all  may  have 
what  we  call  fair  play.  It  is  impossible  to  think 
of  morality  aside  from  expressions  of  force, 
primarily  physical  force.  ''Thou  shalt  not 
kill;  thou  shalt  not  steal;  thou  shalt  not  bear 
false  witness;  thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery; 
thou  shalt  not  remove  the  ancient  landmark;" 
and  all  approvals  and  disapprovals  imply  that 
the  act  in  question  has  affected  or  will  affect  the 
interest  of  others,  or  of  society  at  large,  for 
better  or  for  worse.  And  since  morality  goes 
back  so  directly  to  forms  of  activity  and  their 
regulation,  we  may  expect  to  find  that  the  motor 
male  and  the  more  stationary  female  have  had 
a  different  relation  to  the  development  of  a 
moral  code. 

As  between  nutrition  and  reproduction,  in  the 
struggle  for  life,  nutrition  plays  a  larger  role — 
in  volume,  at  any  rate — in  the  life-history  of  the 
individual.  A  consideration  of  the  causes  of 
the  modification  of  species  in  nature  shows  that 
the  changes  in  morphology  and  habit  of  the. 
animal  which  relate  to  food-getting  are  more 

149 


150  Sex  and  Society 

fundamental  and  numerous  than  those  which 
relate  to  wooing.  In  a  moral  code,  likewise, 
whether  in  an  animal  or  human  society,  the  bulk 
of  morality  turns  upon  food  rather  than  sex  rela- 
tions; and  since  the  male  is  more  active  in  both 
these  relations,  anri  since,  further,  morality  is 
the  mode  of  regulating  activities  in  these  rela- 
tions, it  is  to  be  expected  that  morality,  and 
immorality  as  well,  will  be  found  primarily 
to  a  greater  degree  functions  of  the  motor  male 
disposition. 

Tribal  safety  and  the  preservation  and  exten- 
sion of  the  territory  furnishing  food  demand  the 
organized  attention  of  the  group  first  of  all;  and 
the  emotional  demonstrations  and  social  rewards 
following  modes  of  behavior  which  have  a  pro- 
tective or  provident  meaning  for  the  group,  and 
the  public  disapproval  and  disallowance  of 
modes  of  behavior  which  impair  the  safety  or 
force  capacity,  and  consequent  satisfactions  of 
the  group,  become  in  the  tribe  the  most  powerful 
of  all  stimuli,  and  stimuli  to  which  the  male  is 
peculiarly  able  to  react.  This  is  not  like  the 
case  of  hunger  and  other  physiological  stimuli 
which  are  conditioned  from  within.  The  indi- 
vidual acts  for  the  advantage  of  the  group  rather 
than  for  his  personal  advantage,  and  the  stimu- 


Sex  and  Primitive  Morality  151 

lus  to  this  action  must  be  furnished  socially. 
Group  preservation  being  of  first-rate  impor- 
tance, no  group  would  survive  in  which  the 
public  showed  apathy  on  this  point.  Lewis 
and  Clarke  say  of  the  Dakota  Indians : 

What  struck  us  most  was  an  institution  peculiar  to  them 
and  to  the  Kite  Indians,  further  to  the  westward,  from 
whom  it  is  said  to  have  been  copied.  It  is  an  association 
of  the  most  active  and  brave  young  men,  who  are  bound 
to  each  other  by  attachment,  secured  by  a  vow  never  to 
retreat  before  any  danger,  or  to  give  way  to  their  enemies. 
In  war  they  go  forward  without  sheltering  themselves 
behind  trees,  or  aiding  their  natural  valor  by  any  artifice. 
....  These  young  men  sit,  and  encamp,  and  dance 
together,  distinct  from  the  rest  of  the  nation;  they  are 
generally  about  thirty  or  thirty-five  years  old;  and  such 
is  the  deference  paid  to  courage  that  their  seats  in  the 
council  are  superior  to  those  of  the  chiefs,  and  their 
persons  more  respected.^ 

The  consciousness  of  the  value  of  male  activity  is 
here  expressed  in  an  exaggerated  degree — in  a 
degree  bordering  upon  the  pathological,  since 
the  reckless  exposure  of  life  to  danger  is  not 
necessary  to  success  at  a  given  moment,  and  is 
unjustifiable  from  the  standpoint  of  public 
safety,  unless  it  be  on  the  side  of  the  suggestive 
effect  of  intrepid  conduct  in  creating  a  general 

I  Lewis  and  Clarke,  Travels  to  the  Source  0}  the  Missouri,  ed. 
1814,  Vol.  I,  p.  60. 


152  Sex  and  Society 

standard  of  intrepidity.  Similarly,  the  Indians 
in  general  often  failed  to  get  the  full  benefit  of  a 
victory,  because  of  their  practice  that  the  scalp 
of  an  enemy  belonged  to  him  who  took  it,  and 
their  pursuits  after  a  rout  were  checked  by  the 
delay  of  each  to  scalp  his  own. 

The  pedagogical  attempts  of  primitive  society, 
so  far  as  they  are  applied  to  boys,  have  as  an  end 
the  encouragement  of  morality  of  a  motor,  not  a 
sentimental,  type.  The  boys  are  taught  war  and 
the  chase,  and  to  despise  the  occupations  of 
women.     Thompson  says  of  the  Zulu  boys : 

It  is  a  melanchoy  fact  that  when  they  have  arrived  at 
a  very  early  age,  should  their  mothers  attempt  to  chastise 
them,  such  is  the  law  that  these  lads  are  at  the  moment 
allowed  to  kill  their  mothers.^ 

Ethnologists  often  make  mention  of  the  fact  that 
the  natural  races  do  not  generally  punish  chil- 
dren ;  and  while  this  is  due  in  part  to  a  less  defi- 
nite sense  of  responsibility,  as  well  as  of  less 
nervousness  in  parents,  non-interference  is  a  part 
of  their  system  of  training : 

Instead  of  teaching  the  boy  civil  manners,  the  father 
desires  him  to  beat  and  pelt  the  strangers  who  come  to 
the  tent;  to  steal  or  secrete  in  joke  some  trifling  article 

•  G.  Thompson,  Travels  and  Adventures  in  Southern  Africa, 
Appendix,  p.  286. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Morality  153 

belonging  to  them;  and  the  more  saucy  and  impudent 
they  are,  the  more  troublesome  to  strangers  and  all  the 
men  of  the  encampment,  the  more  they  are  praised  as 
giving  indication  of  a  future  enterprising  and  warlike 
disposition.' 

Theft  is  also  encouraged  among  boys  as  a 
developer  of  their  wits.  The  Spartan  boy  and 
the  fox  is  a  classical  example;  and  Diodorus 
relates  that  in  Egypt  the  boy  who  wished  to  be- 
come a  thief  was  required  to  enrol  his  name  with 
the  captain  of  the  thieves,  and  to  turn  over  to 
him  all  stolen  articles.  The  citizens  who  were 
robbed  went  to  the  captain  of  thieves  and  recov- 
ered their  property  upon  payment  of  one-fourth 
of  its  value.  ^  Admiration  of  a  lawless  deed  often 
foreruns  censure  of  the  deed  in  consciousness 
today:  there  are  few  men  who  do  not  admire  a 
particularly  daring  and  successful  bank  or  dia- 
mond robbery,  though  they  deprecate  the  social 
injury  done. 

Formally  becoming  a  man  is  made  so  much  of 
in  early  society,  because  it  is  on  this  occasion 
that  fitness  for  activity  is  put  to  the  test.  Initia- 
tory ceremonies  fall  at  the  time  of  puberty  in  the 

'  J.  L.  Burckhardt,  Notes  on  the  Bedouins  and  Wahabys,  Vol.  I, 
p.  98. 

2  Post,  Bausteine  einer  allgemeinen  Rechtswissenschaft,  Vol.  I, 
p.  287. 


154  Sex  and  Society 

candidate,  and  consist  of  instruction  and  trials 
of  fortitude.  A  certain  show  of  the  proceeds  of 
activity  is  also  exacted  of  young  men,  especially 
in  connection  with  marriage,  and  the  youth  is 
not  permitted  to  marry  until  he  has  killed  certain 
animals  or  acquired  certain  trophies.  The  atten- 
tion given  to  manly  practices  in  connection  with 
marriage  is  seen  in  this  example  from  the  Kukis : 
When  a  young  man  has  fixed  his  affections  upon  a 
young  woman,  either  of  his  own  or  some  neighboring 
Parah,  his  father  visits  her  father  and  demands  her  in 
marriage  for  his  son:  her  father,  on  this,  inquires  what 
are  the  merits  of  the  young  man  to  entitle  him  to  her 
favor;  and  how  many  can  he  afford  to  entertain  at  the 
wedding  feast;  to  which  the  father  of  the  young  man 
repHes  that  his  son  is  a  brave  warrior,  a  good  hunter,  and 
an  expert  thief;  for  that  he  can  produce  so  many  heads 
of  the  enemies  he  has  slain  and  of  the  game  he  has  killed ; 
that  in  his  house  are  such  and  such  stolen  goods;  and 
that  he  can  feast  so  many  (mentioning  the  number)  at 
his  marriage.^ 

Occasionally  the  ability  to  take  punishment  is 
even  made  a  part  of  the  marriage  ceremony. 
At  Arab  marriages 

there  is  much  feasting,  and  the  unfortunate  bridegroom 
undergoes  the  ordeal  of  whipping  by  the  relations  of  his 
bride,  in  order  to  test  his  courage.   Sometimes  this  punish- 

I  Macrae,  "Account  of  the  Kookies  and  Lunctas,"  Asmti^:  Re- 
searches, Vol.  VII,  p.  193. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Morality  155 

ment  is  exceedingly  severe,  being  inflicted  with  the  coor- 
batch,  or  whip  of  hippopotamus  hide,  which  is  cracked 
vigorously  about  his  ribs  and  back.  If  the  happy  husband 
wishes  to  be  considered  a  man  worth  having,  he  must 
receive  the  chastisement  with  an  expression  of  enjoyment ; 
in  which  case  the  crowds  of  women  in  admiration  again 
raise  their  thriUing  cry.^ 

A  very  simple  record  of  successful  activity  is 
the  bones  of  animals.  McCosh  says  of  the 
Mishmis  of  India: 

Nor  are  these  hospitable  rites  allowed  to  be  forgotten ; 
the  skull  of  every  animal  that  has  graced  the  board  is 
hung  up  as  a  record  in  the  hall  of  the  entertainer;  he 
who  has  the  best-stocked  Golgotha  is  looked  upon  as  the 
man  of  the  greatest  wealth  and  liberality,  and  when  he 
dies  the  whole  smoke-dried  collection  of  many  years  is 
piled  upon  his  grave  as  a  monument  of  his  riches  and  a 
memorial  of  his  worth.* 

And  Grange  of  the  Nagas : 

In  front  of  the  houses  of  the  greater  folks  are  strung  up 
the  bones  of  the  animals  with  which  they  have  feasted  the 
villagers,  whether  tigers,  elephants,  cows,  hogs,  or  mon- 
keys, or  aught  else,  for  it  signifies  little  what  comes  to 
their  net.3 

The  head-hunting  mania  of  Borneo  is  also  a 
pathological   expression    of   the   desire    to   get 

I  S.  \V.  Baker,  The  Nile  Tributaries  of  Abyssinia,  p.  125. 
»  Journal  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal,  Vol.  V,  p.  195. 
3  Ibid.,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  470. 


156  Sex  and  Society 

approval  of  destructive  activity  from  both  the 
living  and  the  dead: 

The  aged  of  the  people  were  no  longer  safe  among  their 
kindred,  and  corpses  were  secretly  disinterred  to  increase 
the  grizzly  store.  Superstition  soon  added  its  ready 
impulse  to  the  general  movement.  The  aged  warrior 
could  not  rest  in  his  grave  till  his  relatives  had  taken  a 
head  in  his  name ;  the  maiden  disdained  the  weak-hearted 
suitor  whose  hand  was  not  yet  stained  with  some  cowardly 
murder.* 

Class  distinctions  and  the  attendant  cere- 
monial observances  go  immediately  back  to  an 
appreciation  of  successful  motor  activities.  We 
need  only  observe  the  conduct  of  weaker  animals 
in  the  presence  of  the  stronger  to  appreciate  the 
differences  in  behavior  induced  by  the  presence 
of  superior  motor  ability.  The  recognition  of 
this  difference,  as  it  is  finally  expressed  in  habit- 
ual forms  of  behavior,  becomes  a  symbol  of  the 
difference,  while  the  difference  goes  back,  in 
reality,  to  a  difference  in  capacity.  This  ex- 
ample from  Raffles  illustrates  the  intensity  of 
moral  meaning  which  the  appreciation  of  achieve- 
ment may  take  on  in  the  end : 

At  the  court  of  Sura-kerta  I  recollect  that  once,  when 
holding  a  private  conference  with  the  Susunan  at  the 
residency,  it  became  necessary  for  the  Rddan  adipdti  to 

'  F.  Boyle,  Adventures  among  the  Dyaks  of  Borneo,  p.  170. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Morality  157 

be  dispatched  to  the  palace  for  the  royal  seal:  the  poor 
old  man  was,  as  usual,  squatting,  and  as  the  Susunan 
happened  to  be  seated  with  his  face  toward  the  door,  it 
was  fully  ten  minutes  before  his  minister,  after  repeated 
ineffectual  attempts,  could  obtain  the  opportunity  of 
rising  sufficiently  to  reach  the  latch  without  being  seen  by 
his  royal  master.  The  mission  on  which  he  was  dis- 
patched was  urgent,  and  the  Susunan  himself  incon- 
venienced by  the  delay;  but  these  inconveniences  were 
insignificant  compared  with  the  indecorum  of  being  seen 
out  of  the  dddok  posture.  When  it  is  necessary  for  an 
inferior  to  move,  he  must  still  retain  that  position,  and 
walk  with  his  hams  upon  his  heels  until  he  is  out  of  his 
superior's  sight.' 

Drury  says  that  a  Malagasy  chief,  on  his  return 
from  war, 

had  scarcely  seated  himself  at  his  door,  when  his  wife 
came  out  crawling  on  her  hands  and  knees  until  she 
came  to  him,  and  then  licked  his  feet ;  when  she  had  done, 
his  mother  did  the  same,  and  all  the  women  in  the  town 
saluted  their  husbands  in  the  same  manner.^ 

An  examination  of  the  causes  of  the  approval 
of  conduct  in  early  times  thus  discloses  that 
approvals  were  based  to  a  large  degree  on  vio- 
lent and  socially  advantageous  conduct,  that  the 
training  and  rewards  of  early  society  were  calcu- 
lated to  develop  the  skill  and  fortitude  essential 

'  T.  S.  Raffles,  History  0}  Java,  Vol.  I,  p.  309. 
2  R.  Drury,  Madagascar,  p.  77. 


158  Sex  and  Society 

to  such  conduct,  and  that  the  men  were  particu- 
larly the  representatives  of  conduct  of  this  type. 
In  the  past,  at  any  rate,  there  has  been  no  glory 
like  military  glory,  and  no  adulation  like  military 
adulation;  and  in  the  vulgar  estimation  still  no 
quality  in  the  individual  ranks  with  the  fighting 
quality. ' 

But  checks  upon  conduct  are  even  more 
definitely  expressed,  and  more  definitely  express- 
ible, than  approvals  of  conduct.  Approval  is 
expressed  in  a  more  general  expansive  feeling 
toward  the  deserving  individual,  and  this  may  be 
accompanied  with  medals  for  bravery,  promo- 
tions, and  other  rewards;  but  in  general  the 
moral  side  of  life  gets  no  such  definite  notice  as 
the  immoral  side.  Practices  which  are  disliked 
by  all  may  be  forbidden,  while  there  is  no  equally 
summary  way  of  dealing  with  practices  approved 
by  all.  In  consequence,  practices  which  inter- 
fere with  the  activities  of  others  are  inhibited, 

'  No  notice  is  here  taken  of  the  moral  content  of  forms  of  wor- 
ship, since  religious  practices  are  to  be  regarded  as  reflections  of 
social  practices.  Morality  springs  from  human  activity,  and  reli- 
gious belief  consists  in  positing  human  traits  in  spirits;  but  it  is 
impossible  to  find  in  religious  practice  an  element  which  did 
not  before  exist  in  human  practice.  Religion  and  art  have  a 
philosophical  and  an  ideal  side,  and  their  representations  may 
be  regarded  as  more  perfect  and  vaUd  than  the  human  models 
on  which  they  are  based,  but  the  ground-patterns  of  both  religion 
and  art  are  those  of  human  experience. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Morality  159 

and  to  the  violation  of  the  inhibition  is  attached 
a  penalty,  resulting  in  a  body  of  law  and  a  sys- 
tem of  punishment.  An  analysis  of  the  follow- 
ing crimes  and  punishments  among  the  Kafirs, 
for  instance,  indicates  that  a  definite  relation 
between  offensive  forms  of  activity  and  punish- 
ments is  present  at  a  comparatively  early  period 
of  development : 

Theft:  restitution  and  fine.  Injuring  cattle:  death 
or  fine,  according  to  the  circumstances.  Causing  cattle 
to  abort:  heavy  fine.  Arson:  fine.  False  witness: 
heaw  fine.  Maiming:  fine.  Adultery:  fine,  sometimes 
death.  Rape:  fine,  sometimes  death.  Using  love 
philters:  death  or  fine,  according  to  circumstances. 
Poisoning,  and  practices  with  an  evil  intent  (termed 
"witchcraft"):  death  and  confiscation.     Murder:  death 

or    fine,    according    to    circumstances Treason, 

as  contriving  the  death  of  a  chief,  conveying  information 
to  the  enemy:  death  and  confiscation.  Desertion  from 
the  tribe:  death  and  confiscation.' 

Similarly  among  the  Kukis : 

Injuring  the  property  of  others,  or  taking  it  without 
payment;  using  violence ;  abusing  parents;  fraudulently 
injuring  another;  giving  false  evidence;  speaking  dis- 
respectfully to  the  aged ;  marrying  an  elder  brother's  wife ; 
putting  your  foot  on,  or  walking  over,  a  man's  body; 
speaking  profanely  of  religion — are  acts  of  impiety.^ 

'  J-  Shooter,  The  Kafirs  of  Natal  and  the  Zulu  Country,  p.  102. 
2  Major  J.  Butler,   Travels  and  Adventures  in  Assam,  p.  88. 


i6o  Sex  and  Society 

As  the  vigorous  and  aggressive  activities  of  the 
male  have  a  very  conspicuous  value  for  the  group 
when  exercised  for  the  benefit  of  the  group,  they 
become  particularly  harmful  when  directed 
against  the  safety  or  interests  of  the  group  or 
the  members  of  the  group,  and  we  find  that  civil 
and  criminal  law,  and  contract,  and  also  con- 
ventional morality,  are  closely  connected  with 
the  motility  of  the  male.  The  establishment  of 
moral  standards  is  mediated  through  the  sense 
of  strain — strain  to  the  personal  self,  and  strain 
to  the  social  self.  Whether  a  man  is  injured 
by  an  assault  upon  his  life  or  upon  his  property, 
he  suffers  violence,  and  the  first  resort  of  the 
injured  individual  or  group  is  to  similar  violence ; 
but  this  results  in  a  vicious  tit-for-tat  reaction 
whereby  the  stimulus  to  violence  is  reinstated 
by  every  fresh  act  of  violence.  Within  the  group 
this  vicious  action  and  reaction  is  broken  up  by 
the  intervention  of  public  opinion,  either  in  an 
informal  expression  of  disapproval,  or  through 
the  headmen.  The  man  who  continues  to  kill 
may  be  killed  in  turn,  but  by  order  of  the  council 
of  the  tribe;  and  one  of  his  kinsmen  may  be 
appointed  to  execute  him,  as  under  that  condi- 
tion no  feud  can  follow.  But  there  is  alwavs  a 
reluctance  to  banish  or  take  the  life  of  the  mem- 


Sex  and  Primitive  Morality  i6i 

ber  of  the  group,  both  because  no  definite  ma- 
chinery is  developed  for  accomplishing  either, 
and  because  the  loss  of  an  able-bodied  member 
of  a  group  is  a  loss  to  the  group  itself.  The 
group  does  not  seek,  therefore,  immediately  to  be 
rid  of  an  offensive  member,  but  to  modify  his 
habits,  to  convert  him.  Jones  says  of  the 
Ojibways  that  there  were  occasionally  bad  ones 
among  them,  "but  the  good  council  of  the  wise 
sachems  and  the  mark  of  disgrace  put  upon 
unruly  persons  had  a  very  desirable  influence."' 
The  extreme  form  of  punishment  in  the  power 
of  the  folk-moot  of  the  Tuschinen  is  to  be  ex- 
cluded from  the  public  feasts,  and  to  be  made  a 
spectator  while  stoned  in  effigy  and  cursed.  "^ 
Sending  a  man  to  Coventry  is  in  vogue  among 
the  Fejir  Beduins:  one  who  kills  a  friend  is  so 
despised  that  he  is  never  spoken  to  again,  nor 
allowed  to  sit  in  the  tent  of  any  member  of  the 
tribe.  ^ 

The  formulation  of  sentiment  about  an  act 
depends  also  on  the  repetition  of  the  act.  The 
act  is  more  irritating,  and  the  irritation  more 
widespread,  with   each  repetition,    and    there 

1  Jones,  History  of  the  Ojihway  Indians,  p.  57. 

2  Von  Seidlitz,  " Ethnographische  Rundschau,"  Internationales 
Archiv  }iir  Ethnographic,  1890,  p.  136. 

3  Doughty,  Travels  in  Arabia  Deserta,  p.  360. 


1 62  Sex  and  Society 

is  an  increase  of  the  penalty  for  a  second 
offense,  and  death  for  a  slight  offense  when 
frequently  repeated:  in  the  Netherlands  steal- 
ing of  linen  left  in  the  fields  to  be  bleached  led 
to  the  death  penalty  for  stealing  a  pocket  hand- 
kerchief. And  with  increasing  definiteness  of 
authority  there  follows  increasing  definiteness 
of  punishment;  and  when  finally  the  habit 
becomes  fixed,  conformity  with  it  becomes  a 
paramount  consideration,  and  a  deed  is  no 
longer  viewed  with  reference  to  its  intrinsic 
import  so  much  as  to  its  conformity  or  noncon- 
formity with  a  standard  in  the  law:  summiun 
jus,  summa  injuria. 

Morality,  involving  the  modification  of  the 
conduct  of  the  individual  in  view  of  the  presence 
of  others,  is  already  highly  developed  in  the  tribal 
stage,  since  the  exigencies  of  life  have  demanded 
the  most  rigorous  regulation  of  behavior  in  order 
to  secure  the  organization  and  the  prowess  essen- 
tial to  success  against  all  comers.  But  the  tribe 
is  a  unit  in  hostile  coexistence  with  other  similar 
units,  and  its  morality  stops  within  itself,  and 
applies  in  no  sense  to  strangers  and  outsiders. 
The  North  American  Indians  were  theoretically 
at  war  with  all  with  whom  they  had  not  con- 
cluded a  treaty  of  peace.     In  Africa  the  traveler 


Sex  and  Primitive  Morality  163 

is  safe  and  at  an  advantage  if  by  a  fiction  (the 
rite  of  blood-brotherhood)  he  is  made  a  member 
of  the  group;  and  similarly  in  Arabia  and  else- 
where. The  old  epics  and  histories  are  full  of 
the  praises  of  the  man  who  is  gentle  within  the 
group  and  furious  without  it.  The  earliest 
commandments  doubtless  did  not  originally 
apply  to  mankind  at  large.  They  meant,  "  Thou 
shalt  not  kill  within  the  tribe,"  "Thou  shalt  not 
not  commit  adultery  within  the  tribe,"  etc.  Can- 
nibalism furnishes  a  most  interesting  example 
of  the  prohibition  of  a  practice  as  applied  to  the 
members  of  the  group,  while  extra-tribal  canni- 
balism continued  unabated.  And  within  the 
tribe  there  is  a  continuance  of  this  practice  in 
the  forms  which  do  not  interfere  with  the  effi- 
ciency and  cripple  the  activity  of  the  group.  That 
is,  whUe  cannibalism  in  general  is  prohibited, 
the  eating  of  the  decrepit,  the  aged,  of  invalids,  of 
deformed  children,  and  of  malefactors  is  still 
practiced. ' 

But  there  gradually  grew  up  a  set  of  disap- 
provals of  conduct  as  such,  whether  within  or 
without  the  group.  In  the  Odyssey  Pallas 
Athene   says   that    Odysseus   had   come   from 

I  Cf.  R.  Steinmetz,  "  Endokannibalismus,"  Mitiheilungen  der 
anthropologischen  Gesellschaft  in  Wien,  Vol.  XXVI. 


164  Sex  and  Society 

Ephyra  from  Ilus,  son  of  Mermerus:  "For  even 
thither  had  Odysseus  gone  on  his  swift  ship  to 
seek  a  deadly  drug,  that  he  might  have  where- 
withal to  smear  his  bronze-shod  arrows:  but 
Ilus  would  in  no  wise  give  it  to  him,  for  he  had 
in  awe  the  everlasting  gods.'"  Here  is  an  exten- 
sion to  society  in  general  of  a  principle  which 
had  been  first  worked  out  in  the  group;  for 
poisoning  without  the  group  was  long  allowed 
after  it  was  disallowed  in  the  group.  The  case  of 
poisoning  is,  indeed,  a  particularly  good  instance 
of  an  unsatisfaction  felt  in  the  substitution  of 
clandestine  methods  for  simple  motor  force  in 
deciding  a  dispute,  and  afTords  a  clear  example 
of  an  important  relation  between  moral  feeling 
and  physiological  functioning.  Animal  as  well 
as  human  society  has  developed  strategy  along- 
side of  direct  motor  expressions,  but  strategy  is 
only  an  indirect  application  of  the  motor  prin- 
ciple. Co-ordination,  associative  memory,  will, 
judgment,  are  involved  in  strategy;  it  is  only  a 
different  mode  of  functioning.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  is  a  peculiar  abhorrence  of  murder 
by  night,  poisoning,  drowning  in  a  ship's  hold, 
because,  while  all  the  physiological  machinery 
for  action  is  on  hand,  there  is  no  chance  to  work 

'  Odyssey  (translated  by  Butcher  and  Lang),  i,  260. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Morality  165 

it.  It  is  a  most  exasperating  thing  to  die  with- 
out making  a  fight  for  it.  The  so-called  Ameri- 
can duel  is  an  abhorrent  thing,  because  life  or 
death  is  decided  by  a  turn  of  the  dice,  not  on  the 
racially  developed  principle  of  the  battle  to  the 
strong. 

When,  then,  it  is  observed  within  the  group 
that  this,  that,  and  the  other  man  has  died  of 
poison,  each  interprets  this  in  terms  of  himself, 
and  no  one  feels  safe.  The  use  of  poison  is  not 
only  a  means  of  checking  activities  and  doing 
hurt  socially,  but  this  form  is  most  foul  and 
unnatural  because  it  involves  a  death  without 
the  possibility  of  motor  resistance  (except  the 
inadequate  opportunity  on  the  strategic  side 
of  taking  precautionary  measures  against  poison) 
and  a  victory  and  social  reward  without  a 
struggle.  The  group,  therefore  early  adopts 
very  severe  methods  in  this  regard.  Death  is 
the  usual  penalty  for  the  use  of  poison,  and  even 
the  possession  of  poison,  among  tribes  not  em- 
ploying it  for  poisoning  weapons,  is  punished. 
Among  the  Karens  of  India,  if  a  man  is  found 
with  poison  in  his  possession,  he  is  bound  and 
placed  for  three  days  in  the  hot  sun,  his  poison  is 
destroyed,  and  he  is  pledged  not  to  obtain  any 
more.     If  he  is  suspected  of  killing  anyone,  he  is 


1 66  Sex  and  Society 

executed.'  Particularly  distressing  modes  of 
death,  and  other  means  of  penalizing  death  by 
poison  more  severely  than  motor  modes  of  kill- 
ing, were  adopted.  The  Chinese  punish  the 
preparation  of  poisons  or  capture  of  poisonous 
animals  with  beheading,  confiscation,  and  ban- 
ishment of  wife  and  children.  In  Athens  insan- 
ity caused  by  poison  was  punished  with  death. 
The  Sachsenspiegel  provides  death  by  fire.  In 
the  lawbook  of  the  tsar  Wachtang  a  double 
composition  price  was  exacted  for  death  by 
poison.  And  m  ancient  Wales  death  and  con- 
fiscation WTre  the  penalty  for  death  by  poison, 
and  death  or  banishment  the  penalty  of  the 
manufacturer  of  poisons.  The  same  quality  of 
disapproval  is  expressed  in  early  law  of  sorcery, 
and  it  is  unnecessary  to  give  details  of  this  also. 
But,  stated  in  emotional  terms,  both  poison  and 
sorcery,  and  other  underhand  practices  arouse 
one  of  the  most  distressing  of  the  emotions — 
the  emotion  of  dread,  if  we  understand  by  this 
term  that  form  of  fear  which  has  no  tangible  or 
visible  embodiment,  which  is  apprehended  but 
not  located,  and  which  in  consequence  cannot  be 
resisted ;  the  distress,  in  fact,  lying  in  the  inability 

'  F.  Mason,  "  On  the  Dwellings,  Works  of  Art,  Laws,  etc.,  of 
the  Karens,"  Journal  of  the  Asiatic  Society  oj  Bengal,  1868,  p.  149. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Morality  167 

to  function.  The  organism  which  has  devel- 
oped structure  and  function  through  action  is 
unsatisfied  by  an  un-motor  mode  of  decision. 
We  thus  detect  in  the  love  of  fair  play,  in  the 
Golden  Rule,  and  in  all  moral  practices  a  motor 
element;  and  with  changing  conditions  there  is 
progressively  a  tendency,  mediated  by  natural 
selection  and  conscious  choice,  to  select  those 
modes  of  reaction  in  which  the  element  of  chance 
is  as  far  as  possible  eliminated.  This  prefer- 
ence for  functional  over  chance  or  quasi-chance 
forms  of  decision  is  expressed  first  within  the 
group,  but  is  slowly  extended,  along  with  increas- 
ing commercial  communication,  treaties  of 
peace,  and  with  supernatural  assistance,  to 
neighboring  groups.  The  case  of  Odysseus  is 
an  instance  of  a  moment  in  the  life  of  the  race 
when  a  disapproval  is  becoming  of  general 
application. 

On  our  assumption  that  morality  is  dependent 
on  strains,  and  that  its  development  is  due  to 
the  advantage  of  regulating  these  strains,  we 
may  readily  understand  why  most  of  the  canons 
of  morality  are  functions  of  the  katabolic  male 
activity.  Theft,  arson,  rape,  murder,  burglary, 
highway  robbery,  treason,  and  the  like,  are 
natural  accompaniments  of  the  more  aggressive 


1 68  Sex  and  Society 

male  disposition;  the  male  is  par  excellence 
both  the  hero  and  the  criminal.  But  on  the  side 
of  the  sex  we  might  expect  to  find  the  female 
disposition  setting  the  standards  of  morality, 
since  reproduction  is  even  a  greater  part  of  her 
nature  than  of  man's.  On  the  contrary,  how- 
ever, we  find  the  male  standpoint  carried  over 
and  applied  to  the  reproductive  process,  and  the 
regulation  of  sex  practices  transpiring  on  the 
basis  of  force.  In  the  earliest  period  of  society, 
under  the  maternal  system,  the  woman  had  her 
own  will  more  with  her  person;  but  with  the 
formulation  of  a  system  of  control,  based  on 
male  activities,  the  person  of  woman  was  made 
a  point  in  the  application  of  the  male  standpoint. 
"The  wife,  like  any  other  of  the  husband's  goods 
and  chattels,  might  be  sold  or  lent."'  "Even 
when  divorced  she  was  by  no  means  free,  as  the 
tribe  exercised  its  jurisdiction  in  the  woman's 
affairs  and  the  disposal  of  her  person."*  For- 
syth reports  of  the  Gonds  that 

infidelity  in  the  married  state  is  ...  .  said  to  be  very 
rare;  and,  when  it  does  occur,  is  one  of  the  few  occasions 
when  the  stolid  aborigine  is  roused  to  the  extremity  of 
passion,  frequently  revenging  himself  on  the  guilty  pair 

'  Bonwick,  Daily  Life  oj  the  Tasmanians,  p.  75. 
*  Ibid.,  p.  74. 


Sex  and  Primitive  Morality  169 

by  cutting  off  his  wife's  nose  and  knocking  out  the  brains 
of  her  paramour  with  his  ax.^ 

The  sacrifice  of  wives  in  Africa,  India,  Fiji, 
Madagascar,  and  elsewhere,  upon  the  death  of 
husbands,  shows  how  completely  the  person  of 
the  female  had  been  made  a  part  of  the  male 
activity.  Where  this  practice  obtained,  the 
failure  of  the  widow  to  acquiesce  in  the  habit  was 
highly  immoral.  Williams  says  of  the  strangling 
of  widows  by  the  Fijians : 

It  has  been  said  that  most  of  the  women  thus  destroyed 
are  sacrificed  at  their  own  instance.  There  is  truth  in  this 
statement,  but  unless  other  facts  are  taken  into  account 
it  produces  an  untruthful  impression.  Many  are  impor- 
tunate to  be  killed,  because  they  know  that  life  would 
henceforth  be  to  them  prolonged  insult,  neglect,  and  want. 
....  If  the  friends  of  the  woman  are  not  the  most  clam- 
orous for  her  death,  their  indifference  is  construed  into 
disrespect  either  for  her  late  husband  or  his  friends.^ 

Child-marriages  are  another  instance  of  the 
success  of  the  male  in  gaining  control  of  the 
person  of  the  female  and  of  regulating  her  con- 
duct from  his  own  standpoint.  Girls  were 
married  or  betrothed  before  birth,  at  birth,  at 
two  weeks,  three  months,  or  seven  years  of  age, 
and  variously,  often  to  an  adult,  and  their  hus- 

I  Highlaiids  oj  Central  India,  p.  149. 

'  T.  Williams,  Fiji  and  the  Fijians,  p.  201. 


lyo  Sex  and  Society 

bands  were  thus  able  to  take  extraordinary  pre- 
cautions against  the  violation  of  their  chastity. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  frequently  happens, 
especially  where  marriage  by  purchase  is  not 
developed,  that  the  conduct  of  the  girl  is  not 
looked  after  until  she  is  married;  it  becomes 
immoral  only  when  disapproved  by  her  husband. 
In  the  Andaman  Islands, 

after  puberty  the  females  have  indiscriminate  intercourse 
....  until  they  are  chosen  or  allotted  as  wives,  when 
they  are  required  to  be  faithful  to  their  husbands,  whom 

they  serve If  any  married  or  single  man  goes  to 

an  unmarried  woman,  and  she  declines  to  have  inter- 
course with  him  by  getting  up  or  going  to  another  part  of 
the  circle,  he  considers  himself  insulted,  and,  unless 
restrained,  would  kill  or  wound  her.^ 

Under  these  conditions  the  rightness  or  wrong- 
ness  of  the  sexual  conduct  of  the  wife  turned 
upon  the  attitude  of  the  husband  toward  the  act. 
Hence  a  very  general  practice  that  the  husbands 
prostituted  their  wives  for  hire,  but  punished 
unapproved   intercourse : 

The  chastity  of  the  women  does  not  appear  to  be  held  in 
much  estimation.  The  husband  will,  for  a  trifling  pres- 
ent, lend  his  wife  to  a  stranger,  and  the  loan  may  be  pro- 
tracted by  increasing  the  value  of  the  present.     Yet, 

I  Owen   Transactions  0}  the  Ethnological  Society,  New  Series, 
Vol.  II.  p.  35- 


Sex  and  Primitive  Morality  171 

strange  as  it  may  seem,  notwithstanding  this  facility,  any 
connection  of  this  kind  not  authorized  by  the  husband 
is  considered  highly  offensive  and  quite  as  disgraceful  to 
his  character  as  the  same  licentiousness  in  civilized 
societies.'' 

When  woman  lost  the  temporary  prestige 
which  she  had  acquired  in  the  maternal  system 
through  her  greater  tendency  to  associated  life, 
and  particularly  when  her  person  came  more 
absolutely  into  the  control  of  man  through  the 
system  of  marriage  by  purchase,  she  also  ac- 
cepted and  reflected  naively  the  moral  standards 
which  were  developed  for  the  most  part  through 
male  activities.  Any  system  of  checks  and 
approvals  in  the  group,  indeed,  which  was  of 
advantage  to  the  men  would  be  of  advantage 
to  the  women  also,  since  these  checks  and 
approvals  were  safeguards  of  the  group  as  a 
whole,  and  not  of  the  men  only.  The  person 
and  presence  of  woman  in  society  have  stimu- 
lated and  modified  male  behavior  and  male 
moral  standards,  and  she  has  been  a  faithful 
follower,  even  a  stickler  for  the  prevalent  moral 
standards  (the  very  tenacity  of  her  adhesion  is 
often  a  sign  that  she  is  an  imitator) ;  but  up  to 
date  the  nature  of  her  activities — the  nature,  in 

I  Lewis  and  Clarke,  loc.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  p.  421. 


172  Sex  and  Society 

short,  of  the  strains  she  has  been  put  to — has  not 
enabled  her  to  set  up  independently  standards 
of  behavior  either  like  or  unlike  those  developed 
through  the  peculiar  male  activities. 

There  is,  indeed,  a  point  of  difference  in  the 
application  of  standards  of  morality  to  men  and 
to  women.  Morality  as  applied  to  man  has  a 
larger  element  of  the  contractual,  representing 
the  adjustment  of  his  activities  to  those  of  society 
at  large,  or  more  particularly  to  the  activities  of 
the  male  members  of  society ;  while  the  morality 
which  we  think  of  in  connection  with  woman 
shows  less  of  the  contractual  and  more  of  the 
personal,  representing  her  adjustment  to  men, 
more  particularly  the  adjustment  of  her  person 
to  men. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  EXOGAMY 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  EXOGAMY 

Perhaps  the  most  puzzling  questions  which 
meet  the  student  of  early  society  are  connected 
with  marriage  and  kinship;  and  among  these 
questions  the  practice  of  exogamy  has  provoked 
a  very  large  number  of  ingenious  theories. 
These  are,  however,  I  believe,  all  unsatisfactory, 
either  because  they  are  too  narrow  to  cover  the 
facts  completely,  or  because  they  assume  in  the 
situation  conditions  which  do  not  exist.'  But 
quite  aside  from  the  facts  and  the  interpretation 
of  the  facts,  all  theories  in  the  field  have  failed 
to  reckon  sufficiently  with  the  natural  disposi- 
tion and  habits  of  man  in  early  society,  partic- 
ularly with  his  attitude  toward  sexual  matters ; 
and  it  seems  entirely  feasible  to  get  some  light 
on  the  question  why  man  went  outside  his  imme- 
diate family  and  clan  for  women  through  an 
examination  of  the  nature  of  his  sexual  con- 
sciousness, and  of  the  operation  of  this  in  connec- 
tion with  the  laws  of  habit  and  attention. 

First  of  all,  it  is  evident  to  one  who  looks  care- 

'  The  theories  of  Lubbock,  Spencer,  Tylor,  Kohler,  Huth,  and 
Morgan  are  criticized  by  Westermarck,  History  of  Human  Mar- 
riage, pp.  311-19. 

175 


176  Sex  and  Society 

fully  into  the  question  of  early  sex-habits  that 
the  lower  races  are  intensely  interested  in  sexual 
life.  A  large  part  of  their  thought,  and  even 
of  their  inventive  ingenuity,  is  spent  in  this 
direction.  The  pleasures  of  life  are  few  and 
gross,  but  are  pursued  with  vigor;  and,  mutatis 
mutandis,  love  bears  about  the  same  relation  to 
the  activities  of  the  Australian  aborigine  as  it 
bore  to  those  of  Sir  Lancelot  and  the  knights  of 
olden  time. 

A  failure  to  perceive  this  is  the  great  defect 
in  Westermarck's  great  work,  where  it  is  assumed 
that,  if  animals  were  monogamous,  primitive 
man  must  have  been  much  the  more  so.  The 
fact  is  that  in  respect  to  memory,  imagination, 
clothing,  mode  of  association,  and  social  restraint 
man  differed  radically  from  the  animals,  and 
precisely  through  these  added  qualities  he  took 
not  only  an  instinctive,  but  an  artificial  and 
reasoned,  interest  in  sexual  practices;  and  this 
resulted  in  a  state  of  consciousness  which  made 
sexual  life  uninterruptedly  interesting,  in  con- 
trast with  a  pairing  season  among  animals,  and 
also  in  a  constant  tendency  toward  promiscuity, 
whether  this  state  was  ever  actually  reached  or 
not.  The  widespread  and  various  unnatural 
sex  practices,  the  use  of  aphrodisiacs,  the  prac- 


The  Psychology  of  Exogamy  \ 

tice  of  drawing  attention  to  the  girl  at  puberty 
phallic   worship,    erotic   dances,    and   periodic 
orgies,  of  which  the  Orient  furnishes  so  many 
examples,  are  all  found  also  among  the  natural 
races. ' 

Again,  the  eagerness  of  men  to  obtain  girl 
wives,  and  even  a  claim  on  infants,  thus  assuring 
virginity  and  marriage  at  the  moment  of  sexual 
maturity;^  the  habit  of  keeping  girls  in  solitary 
confinement  from  a  tender  age  until  the  con- 
summation of  marriage;^  and  the  African  cus- 
tom of  infibulation,'*  are  classes  of  facts  indicat- 
ing that  the  sexual  element  occupied  a  large  place 
in  the  consciousness  of  the  natural  races. 

We  must  also  consider  the  fact  that  sexual 
life  is  organically  a  utilization  of  a  surplus  of 
nutriment,  and  that  when  food  and  leisure  are 
abundant  there  is  a  tendency  on  the  part  of 
sexual  activity  to  become  a  play  activity,  just  as 
there  is  a  tendency  of  activities  in  general  to 
become  play  activities  under  the  same  condi- 
tions. And  while  there  was  no  leisure  class  in 
early  society,  primitive  man  was  a  man  of  leisure 

I  Cf.  Ploss,  Das  Weib,  3.  Aufl.,  Vol.  I,  pp.  313  ff. 

'  Westermarck,  History  0}  Human  Marriage,  pp.  213  ff. 

3  Danks,  "Marriage  Customs  of  the  New  Britain  Group," 
Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  Vol.  XVIII,  p.  281. 

4  Ploss,  loc.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  p.  150. 


178  Sex  and  Society 

in  the  sense  that  his  work  activities  were  inter- 
mittent; a  successful  hunt  was  followed  by  a 
period  of  rest,  recuperation,  and  surplus  energy, 
and  a  consequent  turning  of  attention  to  sexual 
life,  with  the  result  that  the  sex  interest  appears 
as  one  of  the  main  play  interests  among  the 
natural  races. 

Under  these  conditions,  and  in  the  absence  of 
any  considerably  developed  social  institutions 
or  altruistic  sentiments,  we  not  unnaturally  find 
that  the  older  and  stronger  men  have  the  better 
of  it,  both  in  regard  to  the  food  supply  and  the 
women,  and  the  younger  men  are  obstructed  in 
their  efforts  to  satisfy  their  desires  in  regard  to 
both.  The  following  passages  from  the  ethno- 
logical literature  of  Australia  indicate  the  nature 
of  the  Australian  male  in  sexual  life,  and  the 
nature  of  the  obstructions  encountered  by  the 
youth  in  the  presence  of  the  older  men. ' 

It  is  noticeable,  first  of  all,  that  among  the 
Australian  tribes  the  older  men  have  worked  out 
or  fallen  into  such  habits  regarding  the  females 
that  the  younger  men  obtain  wives  w^ith  great 
difficulty  and  usually  not  before  waiting  a  long 

I  The  evidence  in  this  paper  ^-111  bear  chiefly  on  Australia, 
both  because  the  natives  are  in  a  very  primitive  condition,  and 
because  the  customs  of  the  aborigines  have  been  very  fully  re- 
ported by  a  large  number  of  competent  observers. 


The  Psychology  of  Exogamy  179 

time.  In  fact,  Spencer  and  Gillen,  in  their 
invaluable  works  on  the  central  Australian  tribes 
state  that  usually  a  man  is  married  to  a  woman 
of  another  generation  than  himself : 

The  most  usual  method  of  obtaining  a  wife  is  that 
which  is  connected  with  the  well-established  custom  in 
accordance  with  which  every  woman  of  the  tribe  is 
made  Tiialcha  mura  with  some  man.  The  arrangement, 
which  is  often  a  mutual  one,  is  made  between  two  men, 
and  it  will  be  seen  that  owing  to  a  girl  being  made  Tualcha 
mura  to  a  boy  of  her  own  age  the  men  very  frequently 
have  wives  much  younger  than  themselves,  as  the  husband 
and  the  mother  of  the  wife  obtained  in  this  way  are  usually 
approximately  of  the  same  age.  When  it  has  been  agreed 
upon  by  two  men  that  the  relationship  shall  be  established 
between  their  own  children,  one  a  boy  and  the  other  a 
girl,  the  two  latter,  who  are  generally  of  a  tender  age, 
are  taken  to  the  Eriukwirm,  or  women's  camp,  and  here 
each  mother  takes  the  other  child  and  rubs  it  over  with  a 

mixture  of  fat  and  red  ochre This  relationship 

indicates  that  the  man  has  the  right  to  take  as  wife  the 
daughter  of  the  woman;  she  is  in  fact  assigned  to  him, 
and  this,  as  a  rule,  many  years  before  she  is  born.^ 

It  will  be  noticed  that  this  is  in  reality  a  modifi- 
cation of  the  system  of  exchanging  women,  and 
has  an  advantage  over  capture,  elopement,  and 
charming  (all  of  which  are  methods  in  practice 

I  Spencer  and  Gillen,  The  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia, 
P-  558. 


i8o  Sex  and  Society 

among  the  same  tribes)  in  the  fact  that  it  is  of 
the  nature  of  a  business  transaction  or  social 
agreement,  and  provokes  no  bad  feeling  or 
retaliation.  It  also  shows  considerable  regard 
on  the  part  of  the  elders  for  the  young;  but 
practically  it  is  a  reluctant  admission  of  a  youth 
to  participation  in  sexual  privileges,  since  mar- 
riage is  delayed  until  a  girl  of  his  own  age  has 
been  married  and  given  birth  to  a  girl  who  in 
turn  has  become  marriageable. 

In  the  same  connection  we  have  the  testimony 
of  Curr  that 

the  marriage  customs  of  the  blacks  result  in  very  ill- 
assorted  unions  as  regards  age ;  for  it  is  usual  to  see  old 
men  with  mere  girls  as  wives,  and  men  in  the  prime  of 
life  married  to  old  widows.  As  a  rule  wives  are  not 
obtained  by  the  men  until  they  are  at  least  thirty  years  of 
age.  Women  have  very  frequently  two  husbands  during 
their  lifetime,  the  first  older  and  the  second  younger  than 
themselves.  Of  course,  as  polygamy  is  the  rule  and  the 
men  of  the  tribe  exceed  the  females  in  number  besides, 
there  are  always  many  bachelors  in  every  tribe;  but  I 
never  heard  of  a  female  over  sixteen  years  of  age  who, 
prior  to  the  breakdown  of  aboriginal  customs  after  the 
coming  of  the  whites,  had  not  a  husband.' 

And  Bonwick  says: 

The  old  men,  who  get  the  best  food  and  hold  the  fran- 

'  The  Australian  Race,  Vol.  I,  p.   no. 


The  Psychology  of  Exogamy  i8i 

chise  of  the  tribe  in  their  hands,  manage  to  secure  an 
extra  supply  of  the  prettiest  girls.' 

A  further  evidence  of  the  keen  sexual  interest 
of  the  male  is  furnished  by  the  fact  that  even 
when  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  getting  a  wife 
are  regularly  overcome  by  the  youth,  the  other 
men  of  the  group,  especially  the  older  ones, 
reserve  a  temporary  but  prior  claim  on  her.  ^ 

In  addition  to  a  lively  sexual  interest  in  the 
women  of  their  own  group,  we  find  that  even 
the  lowest  races  have  a  well-developed  appre- 
ciation of  the  property  value  of  women.  In  the 
earliest  times  women  were  the  sole  creators  of 
certain  economic  values,  and  since  the  women 
contributed  as  much  or  more  to  the  support  of 
the  men  as  the  men  contributed  to  the  support 
of  the  women,  the  men  naturally  got  and  kept 
as  many  women  as  possible.-'  The  condition 
prevailing  in  this  regard  in  central  Australia  is 
stated  by  Howitt: 

It  is  an  advantage  to  a  man  to  have  as  many  Piranrus 
as  possible.     He  has  then  less  work  to  do  in  hunting  as 

1  Daily  Lije  of  the  Tasmanians,  p.  64. 

2  Howitt,  "The  Dieri  and  Other  Kindred  Tribes  of  Central 
AustraHa,"  Journal  0}  the  Anthropological  Institute,  Vol.  XX, 
p.  87;  Roth,  Ethnological  Studies  among  the  North-West- 
Central  Queensland  Aborigines,  p.  174;  Spencer  and  Gillcn,  loc. 
cit.,  p.  93. 

3  Cf.  pp.  136  ff.  of  this  volume. 


i82  Sex  and  Society 

his  Piraurus  when  present  supply  him  with  a  share  of  the 
food  which  they  procure,  their  own  Noas  being  absent. 
He  also  obtains  great  influence  in  the  tribe  by  lending 
his  Piraurus  occasionally  and  receiving  presents  from 
young  men  to  whom  Piraurus  have  not  yet  been  allotted, 
or  who  may  not  have  Piraurus  with  them  in  the  camp 
where  they  are.  This  is  at  all  times  carried  on,  and  such 
a  man  accumulates  a  lot  of  property,  weapons  of  all  kinds, 
trinkets,  etc.,  which  he  in  turn  gives  away  to  prominent 
men,  heads  of  totems,  and  such,  and  thus  adds  to  his  own 
influence.  This  is  regarded  by  the  Dieri  as  in  no  way 
anything  but  quite  right  and  proper.^ 

The  following  passages  also  from  Spencer  and 
Gillen's  description  of  the  marriage  customs  of 
these  aborigines  show  both  the  nature  of  the 
sexual  system  of  these  tribes  in  general  and  the 
well-developed  nature  of  both  their  sexual  and 
their  property  interest  in  their  women : 

The  word  Nupa  is  without  any  exception  applied  indis- 
criminately by  men  of  a  particular  group  to  women  of 
another  group,  and  vice  versa,  and  simply  implies  a  mem- 
ber of  a  group  of  possible  wives  or  husbands,  as  the  case 
may  be.  While  this  is  so  it  must  be  remembered  that  in 
actual  practice  each  individual  man  has  one  or  perhaps 
two  of  these  Nupa  women  who  are  especially  attached  to 
himself,  and  live  with  him  in  his  own  camp.  In  addition 
to  them,  however,  each  man  has  certain  Nupa  women 

I  Howitt,  "The  Dieri  and  Other  Kindred  Tribes  of  Central 
Australia,"  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  Vol.  XX, 
p.  58. 


The  Psychology  of  Exogamy  183 

beyond  the  limited  number  just  referred  to,  with  whom 
he  stands  in  the  relation  of  Piraungaru.  To  women  who 
are  the  Piraungaru  of  a  man  (the  term  is  a  reciprocal  one) 
the  latter  has  access  under  certain  conditions,  so  that 
they  may  be  considered  as  accessory  wives.  The  result 
is  that  in  the  Urabunna  tribe  every  woman  is  the  especial 
Nupa  of  one  particular  man,  but  at  the  same  time  he  has 
no  exclusive  right  to  her  as  she  is  the  Piraungaru  of  cer- 
tain other  men  who  also  have  the  right  of  access  to  her. 
Looked  at  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  man  his  Piraun- 
garu are  a  limited  number  of  the  women  who  stand  in  the 
relation  of  Nupa  to  him.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  one 
man  having  the  exclusive  right  to  one  woman;  the  elder 
brothers,  or  Nuthie,  of  the  latter,  in  whose  hands  the 
matter  lies,  will  give  one  man  a  preferential  right,  but  at 
the  same  time  they  will  give  other  men  of  the  same  group 
a  .secondary  right  to  her.  Individual  marriage  does  not 
exist  either  in  name  or  in  practice  in  the  Urabunna  tribe. 
The  initiation  in  regard  to  establishing  the  relationship  of 
Piraungaru  between  a  man  and  a  woman  must  be  taken 
by  the  elder  brothers,  but  the  arrangement  must  receive 
the  sanction  of  the  old  men  of  the  group  before  it  can  take 
efifect.  As  a  matter  of  actual  practice  this  relationship  is 
usually  established  at  times  when  considerable  numbers 
of  the  tribe  are  gathered  together  to  perform  important 
ceremonies,  and  when  these  and  other  important  matters 
which  require  the  consideration  of  the  old  men  are  dis- 
cussed and  settled.  The  number  of  a  man's  Piraungaru 
depends  entirely  upon  the  measure  of  his  power  and 
popularity;  if  he  be  what  is  called  "urku,"  a  word  which 
implies  much  the  same  as  our  word  "influential,"  he  will 
have  a  considerable  number;    if  he  be  insignificant  or 


184  Sex  and  Society 

unpopular,  then  he  will  meet  with  scanty  treatment.  A 
woman  may  be  Piraungani  to  a  number  of  men,  and  as  a 
general  rule  the  women  and  men  who  are  Piraungani  to 
one  another  are  to  be  found  living  grouped  together.  A 
man  may  always  lend  his  wife,  that  is,  the  woman  to 
whom  he  has  the  first  right,  to  another  man,  provided 
always  he  be  her  Nupa,  without  the  relationship  of 
Piraungani  existing  between  the  two,  but  unless  this 
relationship  exists  no  man  has  any  right  of  access  to  a 
woman.  Occasionally,  but  rarely,  it  happens  that  a  man 
attempts  to  prevent  his  wife's  Piraungani  from  having 
access  to  her,  but  this  leads  to  a  fight,  and  the  husband 
is  looked  upon  as  churlish.' 

The  evidence  up  to  this  point  is  presented  with 
a  view  to  estabhshing  the  fact  that  the  men  in 
early  society  had  the  strongest  interest,  both  on 
sexual  and  on  property  grounds,  in  retaining  a 
hold  on  the  women  of  their  group;  and  as  an 
extreme  expression  of  this  interest  I  wish  to  con- 
sider the  system  of  elopement  in  early  society. 
While  there  is  no  system  of  government  by  chiefs 
among  the  Australian  tribes  which  we  have  been 
considering,  the  influence  of  the  old  men  is  very 
powerful  in  all  matters.  The  initiatory  cere- 
monies, covering  periods  of  months  and  occur- 
ring at  intervals  during  a  period  of  years,  and 
involving  great  hardship  to  the  young  men,  are 

•  Spencer  and  Gillen,  loc.  cii.,  pp.  62,  63. 


The  Psychology  oj  Exogamy  185 

calculated  to  inspire  them  with  great  respect  for 
the  old  men  and  for  the  traditional  practices  of 
the  tribe.  One  of  the  practical  workings  of 
this  influence  of  the  older  men  is  to  throw  re- 
straints about  the  young  men  and  obstruct 
their  activities.  This  obstruction  is  seen  quite  as 
clearly  on  the  food  side  as  on  the  side  of  sex,  in 
the  fact  that  the  old  men  make  certain  foods 
which  are  not  abundant  (notably  the  kangaroo 
and  the  opossum)  taboo  to  the  young  men  and 
the  women,  and  thus  reserve  these  delicacies  for 
themselves.  We  have  already  seen,  however, 
that  the  tribe  usually  makes  some  kind  of  a 
tardy  sexual  provision  for  its  male  members, 
and  we  shall  presently  examine  this  question 
more  in  detail;  but  the  fact  remains  that  the  de- 
sires of  the  young  men  are  not  adequately  or 
promptly  provided  for.  They  may  never  get  a 
wife  in  the  usual  course  of  things,  or  they  may 
have  to  delay  marriage  for  a  period  of  twenty 
years  beyond  the  point  of  maturity.  Under 
these  conditions  it  is  to  be  expected  that  the 
young  men  should  sometimes  attempt  to  obtain 
women  in  spite  of  existing  obstructions;  and 
this  is  the  real  significance  of  elopement.  It  is, 
of  course,  true  that  married  men  sometimes 
eloped  with  married  women,  as  with  us;    but  in 


1 86  Sex  and  Society 

some  of  the  Australian  tribes  the  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  marriage  were  so  great  that  elope- 
ment was  recognized  as  the  only  way  out : 

The  young  Kurnai  could,  as  a  rule,  acquire  a  wife  in 
one  way  only.  He  must  run  away  with  her.  Native 
marriage  might  be  brought  about  in  various  ways.  If 
the  young  man  was  so  fortunate  as  to  have  an  unmarried 
sister  and  to  have  a  friend  who  also  had  an  unmarrid 
sister  they  might  arrange  with  the  girls  to  run  off  together 
or  he  might  make  his  arrangements  with  some  eligible 
girl  whom  he  fancied  and  who  fancied  him;  or  a  girl,  if 
she  fancied  some  young  man  might  send  him  a  secret 
message  asking,  "Will  you  find  me  some  food?"  and 
this  was  understood  to  be  a  proposal.  But  in  every  case 
it  was  essential  for  success  that  the  parents  of  the  bride 
should  be  utterly  ignorant  of  what  was  about  to  transpire.^ 

Fison*  is  of  the  opinion  that  elopement  in  this 
case  is  caused  by  the  monopoly  of  women  in  the 
tribe  by  the  older  men.  Even  when  the  assent 
of  the  parents  has  been  secured,  or  when  the 
match  has  been  arranged  by  the  parents  of  the 
young  people,  it  is  in  some  cases  necessary  to 
elope  because  of  the  reluctance  of  the  men  in 
general  to  have  a  young  woman  appropriated: 

If  the  woman  was  caught  her  female  relatives  gave  her 
a  good  beating.  Fights  took  place  over  these  cases  be- 
tween the  girl's  relatives — both  male  and  female — and 

I  Fison  and  Howitt,  Kamilaroi  and  Kurnai,  p.  200. 
» Ihid.,  p.  354. 


The  Psychology  of  Exogamy  187 

those  of  the  man.  The  women  were  generally  the  most 
excited;  they  would  stir  up  the  men  and  then  assist  with 
their  yamsticks.  If  the  girl  was  first  caught  by  other  than 
her  own  relatives,  she  would  be  abused  by  all  the  men; 
but  this  never  occurred  when  her  parents  or  brothers  were 
present  to  protect  her.^ 

When  we  consider  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
young  men  in  getting  wives  at  home,  we  should 
expect  that  they  would  make  a  practice  of  cap- 
turing women  from  other  tribes;  and,  indeed, 
it  is  well  known  that  marriage  by  capture  has 
been  assumed  to  be  at  the  base  of  exogamy  by 
both  Lubbock  and  Spencer.  But  the  im- 
portance which  has  been  attached  to  this  form 
of  marriage  in  the  literature  of  sociology  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  these  eminent  writers  have  con- 
structed theories  on  the  assumption  that  mar- 
riage by  capture  was  widespread  and  important, 
more  than  to  anything  else.  For,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  fact  that  the  theories  of  both  these  writers 
are  too  weak  to  stand  even  if  capture  were  found 
to  be  very  prevalent,  the  evidence  from  Aus- 
tralia shows  that  capture  was  comparatively 
little  practiced  there,  although  that  country 
affords  most  of  the  examples  referred  to  by 
writers  on  this  subject.  Spencer  and  Gillen 
say  in  this  connection: 

I  Fison  and  Howitt,  loc.  cit.,  p.  288,  quoting  Rev.  John  Bulmer 
on  the  Wa-imbio  tribe. 


1 88  Sex  and  Society 

The  method  of  capture  which  has  so  frequently  been 
described  as  characteristic  of  AustraHan  tribes,  is  the 
very  rarest  way  in  which  the  Central  Australian  secures  a 
wife.  It  does  not  often  happen  that  a  man  forcibly  takes 
a  woman  from  someone  else  within  his  own  group,  but  it 
does  sometimes  happen,  and  especially  when  the  man 
from  whom  the  woman  is  taken  has  not  shown  his  respect 
for  his  actual  or  tribal  Ikuntera  (father-in-law)  by  cutting 
himself  on  the  occasion  of  the  death  of  one  or  the  other  of 
the  latter's  relations.  In  this  case  the  aggressor  will  be 
aided  by  the  members  of  his  local  group,  but  in  other 
cases  of  capture  he  will  have  to  fight  for  himself.  At  times, 
however,  a  woman  may  be  captured  from  another  group, 
though  this  again  is  of  rare  occurrence,  and  is  usually 
associated  with  an  avenging  party,  the  women  captured 
by  which,  who  are  almost  sure  to  be  the  wives  of  men 
killed,  are  allotted  to  certain  members  of  the  avenging 
party. ^ 

Curr  reports  to  the  same  efifect : 

On  rare  occasions  a  wife  is  captured  from  a  neighbor- 
ing tribe  and  carried  off At  present,  as  the  steal- 
ing of  a  woman  from  a  neighboring  tribe  would  involve 
the  whole  tribe  in  war  for  his  sole  benefit,  and  as  the  pos- 
session of  the  woman  would  lead  to  constant  attacks, 
tribes  set  themselves  generally  against  the  practice.^ 

It  is,  of  course,  not  to  be  denied  that  the  sexual 
impulse   of   the    male   was    sometimes    strong 

1  Spencer  and  Gillen,  loc.  cit.,  p.  554. 

2  Loc.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  p.  108.  At  the  same  time,  Curr  thinks  that 
capture  was  formerly  more  frequent. 


The  Psychology  of  Exogamy  189 

enough  to  lead  him  to  seize  a  woman  wherever 
he  found  her,  if  he  could  not  get  a  wife  otherwise, 
but  there  is  no  evidence  that  capture  ever  formed 
a  regular  or  important  means  of  getting  wives.  * 

On  the  contrary,  the  evidence  points  to  the 
view  that  as  soon  as  for  any  reason  men  ceased 
to  marry  with  the  women  of  their  own  blood  and 
went  outside  of  their  immediate  families  for 
women,  they  ordinarily  secured  them  in  a  social, 
not  a  hostile,  way,  and  from  a  different  branch 
of  their  own  group,  not,  as  a  rule,  from  a  strange 
group.  In  fact,  the  regular  means  of  securing 
a  wife  other  than  a  woman  of  one's  own  family 
seems  to  have  been  to  exchange  a  woman  of 
one's  family  for  a  woman  of  a  different  family. 

The  Australian  male  almost  invariably  obtains  his  wife 
or  wives  either  as  the  survivor  of  a  married  brother,  or  in 
exchange  for  his  sisters,  or  later  on  in  life  for  his  daughters. 
Occasionally  also  an  ancient  widow,  whom  the  rightful 
heir  does  not  claim,  is  taken  possession  of  by  some  bachelor 
but  for  the  most  part  those  who  have  no  female  relatives 
to  give  in  exchange  have  to  go  without  wives.  Girls 
become  wives  at  from  eight  to  fourteen  years.     Males  are 

I  Misapprehension  as  to  the  prevalence  of  marriage  by  capture 
is  due  in  the  main  to  two  causes:  (i)  cases  of  elopement  have 
been  classed  as  cases  of  capture;  (2)  the  so-called  survivals  of 
marriage  by  capture  in  historical  times,  of  which  so  much  has 
been  made,  are  merely  systematized  expressions  of  the  coyness  of 
the  female,  differing  in  no  essential  point  from  the  coyness  of  the 
female  among  birds  at  the  pairing  season. 


190  Sex  and  Society 

free  to  possess  wives  after  ....  attaining  the  status  of 
young  man,  which  they  do  when  about  eighteen  years  of 
age.  One  often  sees  a  child  of  eight  the  wife  of  a  man  of 
fifty.  Females  until  married  are  the  property  of  their 
father  or  his  heir,  and  afterwards  of  their  husband,  and 
have  scarcely  any  rights.  When  a  man  dies  his  widows 
devolve  on  his  oldest  surviving  brother  of  the  same  caste 
as  himself — that  is,  full  brother.  Should  a  man  leave,  say 
two  widows,  each  of  whom  has  a  son  who  has  attained 
the  rank  of  a  young  man,  then  I  believe  each  of  the  young 
men  may  dispose  of  his  uterine  sister  and  obtain  a  wife 
in  exchange  for  her.  But  should  the  deceased  father 
of  the  young  men  have  already  obtained  wives  on  faith 
of  giving  these  daughters  in  marriage  when  of  suitable 
age,  then  the  contract  made  must  be  kept.  When  the 
father  is  old  and  his  sons  young  men,  it  happens  some- 
times that  he  barters  females  at  his  disposal  for  wives  for 
them.'' 

Roth  also  reports^  that  exchange  of  sisters  is  one 
mode  of  negotiating  marriage ;  and  Haddon  says 
that  in  the  region  of  Torres  Straits  marriage  is 
proposed  by  the  woman,  but  the  man  must  either 
pay  for  her  or  furnish  a  woman  in  return.  In 
Tud,  after  the  young  people  have  come  to  an 
agreement, 

they  both  go  home  and  tell  their  respective  relatives. 
"For  girl  more  big  (i.  e.,  of  more  consequence)  than  boy.'' 
If  the  girl  has  a  brother,  he  takes  the  man's  sister,  and 

I  Curr,  loc.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  p.  107. 
'  Loc.  cit.,  p.  181. 


The  Psychology  of  Exogamy  191 

then  all  is  settled.  The  fighting  does  not  appear  to  be  a 
very  serious  business.^ 

Similarly  in  Maibung: 

An  exchange  of  presents  and  foods  was  made  between 
the  contracting  parties,  but  the  bridegroom's  friends  had 
to  give  the  larger  amount,  and  the  bridegroom  had  to  pay 
the  parents  for  his  wife,  the  usual  price  being  a  canoe  or 
dugong  harpoon,  or  shell  armlet,  or  goods  to  equal  value. 
The  man  might  give  his  sister  in  exchange  for  a  wife,  and 
thus  save  the  purchase  price.  A  poor  man  who  had  no 
sister  might  perforce  remain  unmarried,  unless  an  uncle 
took  pity  on  him  and  gave  him  a  cousin  to  exchange  for  a 
wife.^ 

Fison  and  Howitt^  give  other  examples  of  mar- 
riage by  exchange,  and  I  have  already  given  a 
description  of  the  custom  of  Tualcha  mura,  the 
regular  method  of  obtaining  a  wife  among  the 
central  Australians,  by  means  of  which  a  man 
secures  a  wife  for  his  son  by  making  an  arrange- 
ment with  some  other  man  with  regard  to  the 
latter's  daughter. 

From  the  evidence  given  first  of  all  I  think 
we  must  conclude  that  early  man  was  inclined 
to  appropriate  whatever  women  came  in  his 
way.  In  this  regard  we  have  a  condition 
resembling    that    among    the    higher   animals, 

I  Haddon,   "  Ethnography  of  the  Western  Tribes  of  Torres 
Straits,"  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  Vol.  XIX,  p.  414. 
^  Ibid.,  p.  356.  3  Loc.  cit.,  p.  285. 


192  Sex  and  Society 

where  the  more  vigorous  males  try  to  monopo- 
lize the  females.  We  may  assume  also  that  the 
women  first  appropriated  were  those  born  in  the 
group — that  is,  in  the  immediate  family — as 
being  more  proximate  and  not  already  possessed 
by  others.  In  this  regard  also  the  condition 
resembled  that  among  the  higher  gregarious 
animals;  and  in  so  far  as  the  control  of  the 
women  by  the  men  of  the  group  is  concerned 
the  condition  remains  unchanged.  But  the 
men  have  ceased  to  marry  the  women  of  their 
immediate  families,  and  the  problem  of  exogamy 
is  to  determine  why  men  living  with  women 
and  controlling  them  should  cease  to  marry 
them. 

In  other  papers  I  have  pointed  out  that  the 
interest  of  man  is  not  held  nor  the  emotions 
aroused  when  the  objects  of  attention  have 
grown  so  familiar  in  consciousness  that  the 
problematical  and  elusive  elements  disappear;^ 
and  I  have  also  alluded  to  the  laws  of  sexual  life, 
that  an  excited  condition  of  the  nervous  system 
is  a  necessary  preparation  to  pairing.  "*  And 
just   here    we    must    recognize    the    fact    that 

1  Cf.  "The  Gaming  Instinct,"  American  Journal  oj  Sociology, 
Vol.  VI,  pp.  736  ff.,  et  passim. 

2  Cf.  pp.  208  ff.  of  this  volume. 


The  Psychology  of  Exogamy  193 

monogamy  is  a  habit  acquired  by  the  race,  not 
because  it  has  answered  more  completely  to  the  _ 
organic  interest  of  the  individual,  but  because  it 
has  more  completely  served  social  needs,  par- 
ticularly by  assuring  to  the  woman  and  her  chil-  a 
dren  the  undivided  interest  and  providence  of^ 
the  man.  But  in  early  times  the  law  of  natural 
selection,  not  the  law  of  choice,  operated  to 
preserve  the  groups  in  which  a  monogamous 
or  quasi-monogamous  tendency  showed  itself 
(since  the  children  in  these  cases  were  better 
trained  and  nourished),  and  in  historical  times 
and  among  ourselves  all  of  the  machinery  of 
church  and  state  has  been  set  in  motion  in  favor 
of  the  system.  In  point  of  fact,  the  members 
of  civilized  societies  at  the  present  time  have 
become  so  refined  and  have  so  far  accepted 
ethical  standards  that  monogamy  is  the  system 
actually  favored  on  sentimental  grounds  as  well 
as  on  grounds  of  expediency  by  a  large  propor- 
tion of  any  civilized  population.  On  the  other 
hand,  speaking  from  the  biological  standpoint, 
monogamy  does  not,  as  a  rule,  answer  to  the 
conditions  of  highest  stimulation,  since  here  the 
problematical  and  elusive  elements  disappear 
to  some  extent,  and  the  object  of  attention  has 
grown  so  familiar  in  consciousnes  that  the  emo- 


194  Sex  and  Society 

tional  reactions  are  qualified.  This  is  the 
fundamental  explanation  of  the  fact  that  mar- 
ried men  and  women  frequently  become  inter- 
I  ested  in  others  than  their  partners  in  matrimony. 
I  may  also  just  allude  to  the  fact  that  the  large 
body  of  the  literature  of  intrigue,  represented  by 
the  tales  of  Boccaccio  and  Margaret  of  Navarre, 
is  based  on  the  interest  in  unfamiliar  women. 
Nj  Familiarity  with  women  within  the  group  and 
unfamiliarity  with  women  without  the  group 
is  the  explanation  of  exogamy  on  the  side  of 
interest;  and  the  system  of  exogamy  is  a  re- 
sult of  exchanging  familiar  women  for  others. 
We  have  seen  that  capture  was  not  an  important 
means  of  securing  wives  outside  the  group,  and 
that  exogamy  was  fully  developed  before  prop- 
erty and  media  of  exchange  were  developed  to 
any  extent,  and  consequently  before  the  purchase 
of  women  had  become  a  system.  We  have  seen 
also  that  the  Australian  who  wants  a  woman 
at  the  present  time  gets  her  by  exchanging 
another  woman  for  her.  Social  groups  were 
necessarily  small  in  the  beginning.  Before 
invention  and  co-operation  have  advanced  far, 
the  group  must  remain  small  in  order  to  pick  up 
enough  food  to  sustain  life  on  a  given  area. 
Starting  out  with  a  single  pair,   when   the 


The  Psychology  oj  Exogamy  195 

family  increases  in  size  a  separation  is  necessary ; 
and  clans  are  an  outcome  of  the  process  of 
division  and  redivision,  the  bond  between  the 
clans  and  their  union  in  a  tribe  resulting  from 
their  consciousness  of  kinship.  Now,  it  is  a 
well-known  condition  of  exogamy  that,  while  a 
man  must  marry  without  his  clan,  he  must  not 
marry  without  his  tribe,  and  for  the  most  part, 
in  fact,  the  clan  into  which  he  shall  marry  is 
designated.  In  other  words,  allied  clans  gave 
their  women  in  exchange  mutually.  This  was 
a  natural  arrangement,  both  because  the  two 
groups  were  neighbors  and  because  they  were 
friendly,  and  at  the  same  time  the  psychological 
demand  for  newness  was  satisfied.  When  a 
family  was  divided  into  two  branches.  Branch 
A  had  a  property  interest  in  its  ow^n  women,  but 
preferred  the  women  of  Branch  B  because  of 
their  unfamiliarity.  The  exchange  took  place 
at  first  occasionally  and  not  systematically,  and 
the  women  parted  with  in  each  case  were  not, 
perhaps,  in  all  cases  the  youngest,  and  we  may 
assume  that  they  had  in  all  cases  been  married 
before  they  were  given  up.  But  gradually,  and 
when  the  habit  of  exchange  had  been  estab- 
lished, men  came  to  look  forward  to  the  exchange 
and  to  desire  to  secure  the  girl  at  the  earliest 


196  Sex  and  Society 

possible  moment,  until  finally  young  women 
were  exchanged  at  puberty,  and  virgins.  When 
for  any  reason  there  is  established  in  a  group  a 
tendency  toward  a  practice,  then  the  tendency 
is  likely  to  become  established  as  a  habit,  and 
regarded  as  right,  binding,  and  inevitable:  it  is 
moral  and  its  contrary  is  immoral.  When  we 
consider  the  binding  nature  of  the  food  taboos, 
of  the  couvade,  and  of  the  regulation  that  a  man 
shall  not  speak  to  or  look  at  his  mother-in-law 
or  sister,  we  can  understand  how  the  habit  of 
marrying  out,  introduced  through  the  charm  of 
unfamiliarity,  becomes  a  binding  habit. 

I  think,  therefore,  we  have  every  reason  to 
conclude  that  exogamy  is  one  expression  of  the 
more  restless  and  energetic  habit  of  the  male. 
It  is  psychologically  true  that  only  the  unfamiliar 
and  not-completely-controlled  is  interesting. 
This  is  the  secret  of  the  interest  of  modern 
scientific  pursuit  and  of  games.  States  of  high 
emotional  tension  are  due  to  the  presentation 
of  the  unfamiliar — that  is,  the  unanalyzed,  the 
uncontrolled — to  the  attention.  And  although 
the  intimate  association  and  daily  familiarity 
of  family  life  produce  affection,  they  are  not 
favorable  to  the  genesis  of  romantic  love.  Cog- 
nition is  so  complete  that  no  place  is  left  for 


The  Psychology  of  Exogamy  197 

emotional  appreciation.  Our  common  expres- 
sions "falling  in  love"  and  "love  at  sight" 
imply,  in  fact,  unfamiliarity;  and  there  can  be 
no  question  that  men  and  women  would  prefer 
at  present  to  get  mates  away  from  home,  even 
if  there  were  no  traditional  prejudice  against  the 
marriage  of  near  kin. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MODESTY 
AND  CLOTHING 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MODESTY  AND 
CLOTHING 

No  altogether  satisfactory  theory  of  the  origin 
of  modesty  has  been  advanced.  The  native 
assumption  that  men  were  ashamed  because  they 
were  naked,  and  clothed  themselves  to  hide  their 
nakedness,  is  not  tenable  in  face  of  the  large 
mass  of  evidence  that  many  of  the  natural  races 
are  naked,  and  not  ashamed  of  their  nakedness; 
and  a  much  stronger  case  can  be  made  out  for 
the  contrary  view,  that  clothing  was  first  worn 
as  a  mode  of  attraction,  and  modesty  then 
attached  to  the  act  of  removing  the  clothing; 
but  this  view  in  turn  does  not  explain  an  equally 
large  number  of  cases  of  modesty  among  races 
which  wear  no  clothing  at  all.  A  third  theory 
of  modesty,  the  disgust  theory,  stated  by  Pro- 
fessor James'  and  developed  somewhat  by  Have- 
lock  Ellis,  ^  makes  modesty  the  outgrowth  of  our 
disapproval  of  immodesty  in  others — ''the  appli- 
cation in  the  second  instance  to  ourselves  of 
judgments  primarily  passed  upon  our  mates.  "^ 

1  William  James,  Principles  oj  Psychology,  Vol.  II,  p.  435. 

2  "The  Evolution  of  Modesty,"  Psychological  Review,  Vol.  VI, 
pp.  134  ff- 

3  James,  loc.  oil.,  p.  436. 


202  Sex  and  Society 

The  sight  of  offensive  behavior  is  no  doubt  a 
powerful  deterrent  from  like  behavior,  but  this 
seems  to  be  a  secondary  manifestation  in  the 
case  of  modesty.  The  genesis  of  modesty  is 
rather  to  be  found  in  the  activity  in  the  midst  of 
which  it  appears,  and  not  in  the  inhibition  of 
activity  like  the  activity  of  others.  It  appears 
also  that  it  has  primarily  no  connection  with 
clothing  whatever. ' 

Professor  Angell  and  Miss  Thompson  have 
made  an  investigation  of  the  relation  of  circula- 
tion and  respiration  to  attention,  which  advances 
considerably  our  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  the 
emotions.     They  say : 

When  the  active  process  runs  smoothly  and  uninter- 
ruptedly, these  bodily  activities  [circulation  and  respira- 
tion] progress  with  rhythmic  regularity.  Relatively 
tense,  strained  attention  is  generally  characterized  by 
more  vigorous  bodily  accompaniments  than  is  low-level, 
gentle,  and  relatively  relaxed  attention  (drowsiness,  for 
instance) ;  but  both  agree,  so  long  as  their  progress  is  free 
and  unimpeded,  in  relative  regularity  of  bodily  functions. 
Breaks,  shocks,  and  mal-co-ordinations  of  attention  are 
accompanied  by  sudden,  spasmodic  changes  and  irregu- 

'  Danvin's  explanation  of  sh\Tiess,  modesty,  shame,  and  blush- 
ing as  due  originally  to  "self-attention  directed  to  personal  ap- 
pearance, in  relation  to  the  opinion  of  others,"  appears  to  me  to 
be  a  very  good  statement  of  some  of  the  aspects  of  the  process, 
but  hardly  an  adequate  explanation  of  the  process  as  a  whole. 
(Damin,  Expression  of  the  Emotions  in  Man  and  Animals,  p.  326.) 


The  Psychology  oj  Modesty  and  Clothing     203 

larities  in  bodily  processes,  the  amount  and  violence  of 
such  changes  being  roughly  proportioned  to  the  intensity 
of  the  experiences. 

Now,  emotions  represent  psychological  conditions  of 
great  instabihty.  Especially  is  this  true  when  the  emo- 
tion is  profound.  The  necessity  is  suddenly  thrown  upon 
the  organism  of  reacting  to  a  situation  with  which  it  is  at 
the  moment  able  to  cope  only  imperfectly,  if  at  all.  The 
condition  is  one  in  which  normal,  uninterrupted,  co- 
ordinated movements  are  for  a  time  checked  and  thrown 
out  of  gear.'' 

And  again,  in  concluding  their  admirable 
study : 

All  the  processes  with  which  we  have  been  dealing  are 
cases  of  readjustment  of  an  organism  to  its  environment. 
Attention  is  always  occupied  with  the  point  in  conscious- 
ness at  which  the  readjustment  is  taking  place.  If  the 
process  of  readjustment  goes  smoothly  and  evenly,  we 
have  a  steady  strain  of  attention — an  equilibrated  motion 
in  one  direction.  The  performance  of  mental  calcula- 
tion is  a  typical  case  of  this  sort  of  attention.  But  often 
the  readjustment  is  more  difficult.  Factors  are  intro- 
duced which  at  first  refuse  to  be  reconciled  with  the  rest 
of  the  conscious  content.  The  attentive  equilibrium  is 
upset,  and  there  are  violent  shifts  back  and  forth  as  it 
seeks  to  recover  itself.  These  are  the  cases  of  violent 
emotion.     Between  these  two  extremes  comes  every  shade 

^  James  R.  Angell  and  Helen  B.  Thompson,  "A  Study  of  the 
Relations  between  Certain  Organic  Processes  and  Consciousness," 
University  oj  Chicago  Contributions  to  Philosophy,  Vol.  II,  No.  i, 
pp.  32-69. 


204  Sex  and  Society 

of  diflBiculty  in  the  readjustment,  and  of  consequent 
intensity  in  emotional  tone.  We  have  attempted  to  show 
in  the  preceding  paper  that  the  readjustment  of  organism 
to  environment  involves  a  maintenance  of  the  equilibrium 
of  the  bodily  processes,  which  runs  parallel  with  the 
maintenance  of  the  attentive  equilibrium,  and  is  an  essen- 
tial part  of  the  readjustment  of  the  psycho-physical 
organism. 

The  more  motile  organisms  are  constantly,  by 
very  reason  of  their  motility,  encountering  situa- 
tions which  put  a  strain  upon  the  attention. 
The  quest  for  food  leads  to  encounters  with 
members  of  their  own  and  of  different  species; 
the  resulting  fight,  pursuit,  and  flight  are  accom- 
panied by  the  powerful  emotions  of  anger  and 
fear.  The  emotion  is,  as  Darwin  has  pointed 
out,  a  part  of  the  effort  to  reaccommodate,  since 
it  is  a  physiological  preparation  for  action  appro- 
priate to  the  type  of  situation  in  question. '  The 
strain  upon  the  attention,  the  affective  bodily 
condition,  and  the  motor  activity  appear  usually 
in  the  same  connection,  and,  from  the  stand- 
point of  biological  design,  the  action  concluding 
the  series  of  bodily  activities  is  of  advantage  to 
the  organism. 

I  The  paral)'sis  of  extreme  fear  seems  to  be  a  case  of  failure  to 
accommodate  when  the  equilibrium  of  attention  is  too  violently 
disturbed.     (See  Mosso,  La  peur,  p.  122.) 


The  Psychology  of  Modesty  and  Clothing     205 

In  animal  life  the  situation  is  simple.  Whether 
the  animal  decides  to  fight  for  it  or  to  run  for  it, 
he  has  at  any  rate  two  plain  courses  before  him, 
and  the  relation  between  his  emotional  states 
and  the  type  of  situation  is  rather  definitely  fixed 
racially,  and  relatively  constant.  Even  in  the 
associated  life  of  animals  the  type  of  reaction  is 
not  much  changed,  and  is  here  also  instinctively 
fixed.  But  in  mankind  the  instinctive  life  is 
overshadowed  or  rivaled  by  the  freedom  of 
initiative  secured  through  an  extraordinary 
development  of  the  power  of  inhibition  and  of 
associative  memory,  while,  at  the  same  time, 
this  freedom  of  choice  is  hindered  and  checked 
by  the  presence  of  others.  The  social  life  of 
mankind  brings  out  a  thousand  situations 
unprovided  for  in  the  instincts  and  unanticipated 
in  consciousness.  In  the  midst,  then,  of  a  situa- 
tion relatively  new  in  race  experience,  where 
advantage  is  still  the  all-important  considera- 
tion, and  where  this  can  no  longer  be  secured 
either  by  fighting  or  running,  but  by  the 
good  opinion  of  one's  fellows  as  well,  we  may 
look  for  some  new  strains  upon  the  attention  and 
some  emotions  not  common  to  animal  life. 

I  do  not  think  we  can  entirely  understand  the 
nature  of  these  emotional  expressions  in  the  race 


2o6  Sex  and  Society 

unless  we  realize  that  man  is.  in  his  savage  as 
well  as  his  civilized  state,  enormously  sensitive  to 
the  opinion  of  others. '  The  longing  of  the  Creek 
youth  to  ''bring  in  hair"  and  be  counted  a  man; 
the  passion  of  the  Dyak  of  Borneo  for  heads,  and 
the  recklessness  of  the  modern  soldier,  "seeking 
the  bubble  reputation  at  the  cannon's  mouth;" 
the  alleged  action  of  the  young  women  of  Kansas 
in  taking  a  vow  to  marry  no  man  who  had  not 
been  to  the  Philippine  war,  and  of  the  ladies  of 
Havana,  during  the  rebellion  against  Spain,  in 
sending  a  chemise  to  a  young  man  who  stayed  at 
home,  with  the  suggestion  that  he  wear  it  until 
he  went  to  the  field — all  indicate  that  the  opinion 
of  one's  fellows  is  at  least  as  powerful  a  stimulus 
as  any  found  in  nature.  To  the  student  of 
ethnology  no  point  in  the  character  of  primitive 
man  is  more  interesting  and  surprising  than  his 
vanity.  This  unique  susceptibility  to  social 
influence  is,  indeed,  essential  to  the  complex 
institutional  and  associational  life  of  mankind. 
The  transmission  of  language,  tradition,  mo- 
rality, knowledge,  and  all  race  experience  from 
the  older  to  the  younger,  and  from  one  generation 
to  another,  is  accomplished  through  mental  sug-  / 
gestibility,  and  the  activity  of  the  individual  in 

I  Cf.  pp.  1 08  ff.  of  this  volume. 


The  Psychology  of  Modesty  and  Clothing     207 

associational  life  is   mediated   largely  through 
it. 

Now,  taking  them  as  we  find  them,  we  know 
that  such  emotions  as  modesty  and  shame 
are  associated  with  actions  which  injure  and 
shock  others,  and  show  us  off  in  a  bad  light. 
They  are  violations  of  modes  of  behavior  which 
have  become  habitual  in  one  way  and  another. 
In  an  earlier  paper  ^  I  have  indicated  some  of  the 
steps  by  which  approvals  and  disapprovals  were 
set  up  in  the  group.  When  once  a  habit  is  fixed, ' 
interference  with  its  smooth  running  causes  an 
emotion.  The  nature  of  the  habit  broken  is  of 
no  importance.  If  it  were  habitual  for  grandes 
dames  to  go  barefoot  on  our  boulevards  or  to 
wear  sleeveless  dresses  at  high  noon,  the  con- 
trary would  be  embarrassing.  Psychologically 
the  important  point  is  that,  when  the  habit  is  set 
up,  the  attention  is  in  equilibrium.  When 
inadvertently  or  under  a  sufficiently  powerful 
stimulus  we  break  through  a  habit,  the  attention 
and  associative  memory  are  brought  into  play. 
We  are  conscious  of  a  break,  of  what  others  will 
think;  we  anticipate  a  damaged  or  diminished 
personality;  we  are,  in  a  word,  upset.  We  may 
consequently  expect  to  find  that  whatever  brings 

'  "Sex  and  Primitive  Morality,"  pp.  149  £f. 


2o8  Sex  and  Society 

the  individual  into  conflict  with  the  ordinary 
standards  of  life  of  the  society  in  which  he  is 
living  is  the  occasion  of  a  strain  on  the  attention 
and  of  an  accompanying  bodily  change. ' 

A  minimum  expression  of  modesty,  and  one 
having  an  organic  rather  than  a  social  basis,  is 
seen  in  the  coyness  of  the  female  among  animals. 
In  many  species  of  animals  the  female  does  not 
submit  at  once  to  the  solicitations  of  the  male, 
but  only  after  the  most  arduous  wooing. 

The  female  cuckoo  answers  the  call  of  her  mate  with  an 
alluring  laugh  that  excites  him  to  the  utmost,  but  it  is  long 
before  she  gives  herself  up  to  him.  A  mad  chase  through 
tree  tops  ensues,  during  which  she  constantly  incites  him 
with  that  mocking  call,  till  the  poor  fellow  is  fairly  driven 
crazy.  The  female  kingfisher  often  torments  her  devoted 
lover  for  half  a  day,  coming  and  calling  him,  and  then 
taking  to  flight.  But  she  never  lets  him  out  of  her  sight 
the  while,  looking  back  as  she  flies,  and  measuring  her 
speed,  and  wheeling  back  when  he  suddenly  gives  up  the 
pursuit.* 

1  Without  making  any  attempt  to  classify  the  emotions,  we 
may  notice  that  they  arise  out  of  conditions  connected  ^ith  both 
the  nutritive  and  reproductive  activities  of  Hfe;  and  it  is  possible 
to  say  that  such  emotions  as  anger,  fear,  and  guilt  show  a  more 
plain  genetic  connection  with  the  conflict  aspect  of  the  food- 
process,  while  modesty  is  connected  rather  with  se.xual  life  and 
the  attendant  bodily  habits. 

2  Groos,  The  Play  of  Animals,  p.  2S5.  The  utility  of  these 
antics  is  well  explained  by  Professor  Ziegler  in  a  letter  to  Professor 


The  Psychology  of  Modesty  and  Clothing     209 

There  is  here  a  rapid  shifting  of  attention  be- 
tween organic  impulse  to  pair  and  organic  dread 
of  pairing,  until  an  equilibrium  is  reached, 
which  is  not  essentially  different  from  the  case, 
in  human  society,  of  that  woman  who,  "whisper- 
ing, '  I  will  ne'er  consent,'  consented."  In  either 
case,  the  minimum  that  it  is  necessary  to  assume 
is  an  organic  hesitancy,  though  in  the  case  of 
woman  social  hesitancy  may  play  even  the 
greater  role.  Pairing  is  in  its  nature  a  seizure, 
and  the  coquetry  of  the  female  goes  back,  per- 
haps,'to  an  instinctive  aversion  to  being  seized. 

Our  understanding  of  the  nature  of  modesty 
is  here  further  assisted  by  the  consideration  that 
the  same  stimulus  does  not  produce  the  same 
reaction  under  all  circumstances,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  may  result  in  totally  contrary  effects. 
A  show  of  fight  may  produce  either  anger  or  fear; 
social  attention  may  gratify  us  from  one  person 
and  irritate  us  from  another;  or  the  attentions 
of  the  same  person  may  annoy  us  today  and 
please  us  tomorrow.     Mere   movement  is,   to 

Groos:  "Among  all  animals  a  highly  excited  condition  of  the 
nervous  system  is  necessary  for  the  act  of  pairing,  and  conse- 
quently we  find  an  exciting  playful  prelude  is  very  generally  in- 
dulged in"  (Groos,  loc.  cit.,  p.  242);  and  Professor  Groos  thinks 
that  the  sexual  hesitancy  of  the  female  is  of  advantage  to  the 
species,  as  preventing  "  too  early  and  too  frequent  yielding  to  the 
sexual  impulse"  {loc.  cit.,  p.  283). 


2IO  Sex  and  Society 

take  another  instance,  one  of  the  most  powerful 
stimuli  in  animal  life;  and,  if  we  examine  its 
meaning  among  animals,  we  find  that  the  same 
movement  may  have  different  meanings  in  terms 
of  sex.  If  the  female  runs,  the  movement  at- 
tracts the  notice  of  the  male,  and  the  movement 
is  a  sexual  stimulus.  Or  the  movement  may  be  a 
movement  of  avoidance — a  running-away ;  and  in 
this  way  the  female  may  secure  contrary  desires 
by  the  same  general  type  of  activity.  Or,  on  the 
other  hand,  not  running  is  a  condition  of  pairing, 
and  is  also  a  means  of  avoiding  the  attention  of 
the  male.  Similarly  modesty  has  a  twofold 
meaning  in  sexual  life.  In  appearance  it  is  an 
avoidance  of  sexual  attention,  and  at  many 
moments  it  is  an  avoidance  in  fact.  But  we  have 
seen  in  the  case  of  the  birds  that  the  avoidance 
is,  at  the  pairing  season,  only  a  part  of  the  process 
of  working  up  the  organism  to  the  nervous  pitch 
necessary  for  pairing. 

But  without  going  farther  into  the  question  of 
the  psychology  of  wooing,  it  is  evident  that  very 
delicate  attention  to  behavior  is  necessary  to  be 
always  attractive  and  never  disgusting  to  the 
opposite  sex,  and  even  the  most  serious  attention 
to  this  problem  is  not  always  successful.  ^    Sexual 

I  Old  women  among  the  natural  races  often  lose  their  modesty 


The  Psychology  of  Modesty  and  Clothing     211 

association  is  a  treacherous  ground,  because 
our  likes  and  dislikes  turn  upon  tempera- 
mental traits  rather  than  on  the  judgment,  or, 
at  any  rate,  upon  modes  of  judgment  not  clearly 
analyzable  in  consciousness.  An  openness  of 
manner  in  the  relations  of  the  sexes  is  very 
charming,  but  a  little  more,  and  it  is  boldness,  or, 
if  it  relates  to  bodily  habits,  indecency.  A 
modest  behavior  is  charming,  but  too  much 
modesty  is  prudery.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, when  the  suggestive  effect  of  bodily 
habits  is  realized,  but  the  effect  of  a  given  bit  of 
behavior  cannot  be  clearly  reckoned,  and  when, 
at  the  same  time,  the  effect  produced  by  the 
action  is  felt  to  be  very  important  to  happiness, 
it  is  to  be  expected  that  there  should  often  be  a 
conflict  between  the  tendency  to  follow  a  stim- 
ulus and  the  tendency  to  inhibit  it,  a  hovering 
between  advance  and  retreat,  assent  and  nega- 
tion, and  a  disturbed  state  of  attention,  and  an 
organic  hesitancy,  resulting  in  the  emotional 
overflow  of  blushing  when  the  act  is  realized  or 
thought  as  improper. 

But,  however  thin  and  movable  the  partitions 

because  it  is  no  longer  of  any  use.  Bonwick  says  that  the  Tas- 
manian  women,  though  naked,  were  very  modest,  but  that  the 
old  women  were  not  so  particular  on  this  point.  (Bonwick,  The 
Daily  Life  of  the  Tasmanians,  p.  58.) 


212  Sex  and  Society 

between  attraction  and  disgust,  every  person  is 
aware  of  certain  standards  of  behavior,  derived 
either  from  the  strain  of  personal  relationship  or 
by  imitation  of  current  modes  of  behavior.  The 
girl  of  the  unclothed  races  who  takes  in  sitting 
a  modest  attitude  is  acting  on  the  result  of  experi- 
ence. She  may  have  been  often  annoyed  by  the 
attentions  of  men  at  periods  when  their  attention 
was  not  welcome,  and  in  this  case  the  action  is 
one  of  shrinking  and  avoidance.  She  doubt- 
less has  in  mind  also  that  all  females  are  not  at 
all  times  attractive  to  all  males,  that  female 
boldness  sometimes  excites  disgust,  and  that 
the  concealment  of  the  person  may  be  more 
attractive  than  its  exposure. 

This  more  or  less  instinctive  recognition  of 
the  suggestive  power  of  her  person  and  her  corre- 
sponding attitude  of  modesty  have  been  assisted 
also  by  her  observation  of  the  experiences  of 
other  women,  and  by  the  talk  of  the  older  women. 
I  may  add  the  following  instances  to  make  it 
plain  that  the  sexual  relation  is  the  object  of 
much  attention  from  both  sexes  in  primitive 
society,  and  furnishes  occasion  for  the  interrup- 
tion of  the  smooth  flow  of  the  attention  and  the 
bodily  activities.     Describing  the  use  of  magic 


The  Psychology  of  Modesty  and  Clothing     213 

by  the  male  Australians  in  obtaining  wives, 
Spencer  and  Gillen  add: 

In  the  case  of  charming,  however,  the  initiative  may  be 
taken  by  the  woman,  who  can,  of  course,  imagine  that  she 
has  been  charmed,  and  then  find  a  wilUng  aider  and 
abettor  in  the  man,  whose  vanity  is  flattered  by  the 
response  to  the  magic  power  which  he  can  soon  persuade 
himself  that  he  did  really  exercise.^ 

If  this  attempt  at  suggestion  failed,  we  should 
have  a  case  of  lively  embarrassment  in  the 
woman,  and  her  discomfiture  would  be  height- 
ened if  the  other  women  and  men  of  the  com- 
munity were  aware  of  her  attempt.  Similarly 
on  Jervis  Island  in  Torres  Straits,  if  an  unmar- 
ried woman  was  interested  in  a  man,  she 
accosted  him,  but  the  man  did  not  address  the 
woman  ''for,  if  she  refused  him,  he  would  feel 
ashamed,  and  maybe  he  would  brain  her  with 
a  stone  club,  and  so  'he  would  kill  her  for 
nothing.'  '"^ 

A  wholesale  unsettling  of  habit  is  seen  when 
a  lower  culture  is  impinged  upon  by  a  higher. 
The  consciousness  of  other  standards  of  behavior 

1  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  p.  556. 

2  A.  C.  Haddon,  "The  Ethnography  of  the  Western  Tribes  of 
Torres  Straits,"  Journal  oj  the  Anthropological  Institute,  Vol. 
XIX,  p.  397;  cf.  also  "The  Psychology  of  Exogamy,"  pp.  175  IT. 
of  this  volume. 


214  S^^  ^^<^  Society 

causes  new  forms  of  modesty  in  the  lower  race. 
Haddon  reports  of  the  natives  of  Torres  Straits : 
The  men  were  formerly  nude,  and  the  women  wore 
only  a  leaf  petticoat,  but  I  gather  that  they  were  a  decent 
people ;  now  both  sexes  are  prudish.  A  man  would  never 
go  nude  before  me — only  once  or  twice  has  it  happened  to 

me,    and    then    only    when    they   were    diving 

Amongst  themselves  they  are,  of  course,  much  less  par- 
ticular, but  I  believe  they  are  becoming  more  so.  ...  I 
have  not  noticed  any  reticence  in  their  speaking  about 
sexual  matters  before  the  young,  but  missionary  influence 
has  modified  this  a  great  deal;  formerly,  I  imagine,  there 
was  no  restraint  in  speech,  now  there  is  a  great  deal  of 
prudery;  ....  and  I  had  the  greatest  possible  diflSculty 
in  getting  the  Httle  information  I  did  about  the  former 
relationships  between  the  sexes.  All  this,  I  suspect,  is  not 
really  due  to  a  sense  of  decency  per  se,  but  rather  to  a  de- 
sire on  their  part  not  to  appear  barbaric  to  strangers;  in 
other  words,  the  hesitancy  is  between  them  and  the  white 
man,  not  as  between  themselves.  ' 

Bonwick  says  also : 

I  have  repeatedly  been  amused  at  observing  the  Aus- 
tralian natives  prepare  for  their  approach  to  the  abode 
of  civilization  by  wrapping  their  blankets  more  decently 
around  them  and  putting  on  their  ragged  trousers  or 
petticoats.^ 

There  are  numerous  cases  found  among  the 
lower  races  where  the  wearing  of  clothing  and 

1  Loc.  cit.,  p.  336. 

2  Bonwick,  loc.  cit.,  p.  24. 


The  Psychology  of  Modesty  and  Clothing     215 

ornament  are  not  associated  with  feelings  of 
modesty.  Von  den  Steinen  reports  that  the 
women  of  Brazil  wore  a  small,  delicately  made 
and  ornamented  covering  or  uluri,  which  evi- 
dently had  an  attractive  as  well  as  protective 
value;  but  the  women  showed  no  embarrass- 
ment, but  rather  astonishment,  when  he  asked 
them  to  remove  them  and  give  them  to  him. 
When  they  understood  that  he  really  wanted 
them,  they  removed  them  and  gave  them  to 
him  with  a  laugh.'  This  is  a  case,  in  fact,  of 
the  beginning  of  clothing  without  a  beginning 
of  modesty.  But  while  we  find  cases  of  modesty 
without  clothing  and  of  clothing  without  modesty 
the  two  are  usually  found  together,  because 
clothing  and  ornament  are  the  most  effective 
means  of  drawing  the  attention  to  the  person, 
sometimes  by  concealing  it  and  sometimes  by 
emphasizing  it. 

The  original  covering  of  the  body  was  in  the 
nature  of  ornament  rather  than  clothing.  The 
waist,  the  neck,  the  wrists,  and  the  ankles  are 
smaller  than  the  portion  of  the  body  immedia- 
tely below  them,  and  are  from  this  anatomical 
accident  a  suitable  place  to  tie  ornaments,  and 

'  Karl  von  den  Steinen,  Unier  den  Naturvolkern  Zenlral- 
Brasiliens,  p.  192. 


2i6  Sex  and  Society 

the  ornamentation  of  the  body  results  incidently 
in  giving  some  degree  of  covering  to  the  body. 

The  most  suggestive  use  of  clothing  is  the  use 
of  just  a  sufficient  amount  to  call  attention  to  the 
person,  without  completely  concealing  it.  I 
need  not  refer  to  the  fact  that  in  modern  society 
this  is  accomplished  by,  or  perhaps  we  should 
better  say  transpires  in  connection  with,  diaph- 
anous fabrics  and  decollete  dresses;  and  the  same 
effect  was  doubtless  accomplished  by  a  typical 
early  form  of  female  dress,  of  which  I  will  give 
one  instance  in  Australia  and  one  in  America: 

Among  the  Arunta  and  Luricha  the  women  normally 
wear  nothing,  but  amongst  tribes  farther  north,  especially 
the  Kaitish  and  Warramunga,  a  small  apron  is  made  and 
worn,  and  this  sometimes  finds  its  way  south  into  the 
Arunta.  Close-set  strands  of  fur-string  hang  vertically 
from  a  string  waist-girdle.  Each  strand  is  about  eight 
or  ten  inches  in  length,  and  the  breadth  of  the  apron 
may  reach  the  same  size,  though  it  is  often  not  more  than 
six  inches  wide. 

Mr.  Powers  says : 

A  fashionable  young  Wittun  woman  wears  a  girdle  of 
deer  skin,  the  lower  edge  of  which  is  slit  into  a  long  fringe, 
with  the  polished  pine-nut  at  the  end  of  each  strand, 
while  the  upper  border  and  other  portions  are  studded 
with  brilliant  bits  of  shell.' 

I  Spencer  and  Gillen,  loc.  cit.,  p.  572. 

»  Westermarck,  History  0}  Human  Marriage,  p.  189. 


The  Psychology  oj  Modesty  and  Clothing     217 

If  we  recall  the  psychological  standpoint  that 
the  emotions  are  an  organic  disturbance  of 
equilibrium  occurring  when  factors  difficult  of 
reconciliation  are  brought  to  the  attention,  and 
if  we  have  in  mind  that  the  association  of  the 
sexes  has  furnished  so  powerful  an  emotional 
disturbance  as  jealousy,  it  seems  a  simple  matter 
to  explain  the  comparatively  mild  by-play  of 
sexual  modesty  as  a  function  of  wooing,  without 
bringing  either  clothing  or  ornament  into  the 
question. 

We  saw  a  minimum  expression  of  modesty  in 
the  courtship  of  animals,  where  the  modesty  of 
the  female  was  a  form  of  fear  on  the  organic 
side,  but  the  accompanying  movements  of  avoid- 
ance were,  at  the  same  time,  a  powerful  attrac- 
tion to  the  male.  And  we  have  in  this,  as  in  all 
expressions  of  fear — shame,  guilt,  timidity, 
bashfulness — an  affective  bodily  state  growing 
out  of  the  strain  thrown  upon  the  attention  in 
the  effort  of  the  organism  to  accommodate  itself 
to  its  environment.  The  essential  nature  of  the 
reaction  is  already  fixed  in  types  of  animal  life 
where  the  operation  of  disgust  is  out  of  the 
question,  and  in  relations  which  imply  no  atten- 
tion to  the  conduct  of  others.  If  any  separation 
between  the  bodily  self  and  the  environment 


2i8  Sex  and  Society 

is  to  be  made  at  all,  it  is  putting  the  cart  before 
the  horse  to  make  out  that  modesty  is  derived 
from  our  repugnance  at  the  conduct  of  others, 
more  immediately  than  through  attention  to 
the  meaning  of  our  own  activities.  The  fallacy 
of  the  disgust  theory  lies,  in  fact,  in  the  attempt 
to  separate  the  copies  for  imitation  derived  from 
our  ovi^n  activities  from  those  derived  from  our 
observation  of  the  activities  of  others. 

When  habits  are  set  up  and  are  running 
smoothly,  the  attention  is  withdrawn;  and 
nakedness  was  a  habit  in  the  unclothed  societies, 
just  as  it  may  become  a  habit  now  in  the  artist's 
model.  But  when,  for  any  of  the  reasons  I  have 
outlined,  women  or  men  began  to  cover  the  body, 
then  putting  off  the  covering  became  peculiarly 
suggestive,  because  the  breaking-up  of  a  habit 
brings  an  act  clearly  into  attention.  And  when 
dress  becomes  habitual  in  a  society  whose  sense 
of  modesty  has  also  developed  to  a  high  degree, 
the  suggestive  effect  is  so  great  that  the  bare 
thought  of  unclothing  the  person  becomes  pain- 
ful, and  we  have  the  possibility  of  such  a  phe- 
nomenon as  mock  modesty.  But,  so  far  as 
sexual  modesty  is  concerned,  the  clothing  has 
only  reinforced  the  already  great  suggestive 
power  of  the  sexual  characters. 


The  Psychology  of  Modesty  and  Clothing     219 

In  animal  society  the  coyness  of  the  female 
is  the  analogue  of  modesty.  The  male  is  always 
aggressive,  and  in  both  animal  and  human 
society  used  ornament  as  a  means  of  interesting 
and  influencing  the  female.  In  the  course  of 
time,  however,  man's  activities  became  his  main 
dependence,  and  woman's  person  and  personal 
behavior  became  more  significant,  especially 
in  a  state  of  society  where  she  became  dependent 
on  man's  activities,  and  both  ornament  and 
modesty  were  largely  transferred  to  her. 

In  speaking  of  the  relation  of  sex  to  morality,  ^ 
I  have  already  shown  that  the  morality  of  man 
is  peculiarly  a  morality  of  prowess  and  contract, 
while  woman's  morality  is  to  a  greater  degree  a 
morality  of  bodily  habits,  both  because  child- 
bearing,  which  is  a  large  factor  in  determining 
sexual  morality,  is  more  closely  connected  with 
her  person,  and  in  consequence  also  of  male 
jealousy.  Physiologically  and  socially  repro- 
duction is  more  identified  with  the  person  of 
woman  than  of  man,  and  it  has  come  about 
that  her  sexual  behavior  has  been  more  closely 
looked  after,  not  only  by  men,  but  by  women — 
for  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  show  that  women 

I  Pp.  167  fiF. 


220  Sex  and  Society 

have  been  always,  as  they  are  still,  peculiarly 
watchful  of  one  another  in  this  respect. 

In  the  course  of  history  woman  developed 
an  excessive  and  scrupulous  concern  for  the 
propriety  of  her  behavior,  especially  in  connec- 
tion with  her  bodily  habits;  and  this  in  turn 
became  fixed  and  particularized  by  fashion, 
with  the  result  that  not  only  her  physical  life 
became  circumscribed,  but  her  attention  and 
mental  interests  became  limited  largely  to  safe- 
guarding and  enhancing  her  person. 

The  effect  of  this  and  of  other  similar  restric- 
tions of  behavior  on  her  character  and  mind  is 
indicated  in  following  chapters. 


THE  ADVENTITIOUS  CHARACTER  OF 
WOMAN 


THE  ADVENTITIOUS  CHARACTER  OF 
WOMAN 

There  is  more  than  one  bit  of  evidence  that 
nature  changed  her  plan  with  reference  to  some 
organism  at  the  very  last  moment,  and  intro- 
duced a  feature  which  was  not  contemplated  at 
the  outset.  This  change  of  plan  is  carried  out 
through  the  specialization  of  some  organ,  sense, 
or  habit,  to  such  a  degree  as  to  make  practically 
a  new  type  of  the  organism.  In  the  human 
species,  for  example,  the  atrophied  organs  dis- 
tributed through  the  body  are  evidence  that  the 
physical  make-up  of  the  species  was  well-nigh 
definitely  fixed  before  the  advantage  of  free 
hands  led  to  an  erect  posture,  thereby  throwing 
certain  sets  of  muscles  out  of  use;  and  the 
specialization  of  the  voice  as  a  means  of  com- 
municating thought  was,  similarly,  a  device  for 
relieving  the  hands  of  the  burden  of  communica- 
tion, and  was  not  introduced  systematically  until 
a  gesture  language  had  been  so  well  established 
that  even  now  we  fall  back  into  it  unconsciously, 
especially  in  moments  of  excitement,  and  attempt 
to  talk  with  our  hands  and  bodies. 

223 


224  "^^^  ^^^  Society 

But  perhaps  the  most  interesting  modification 
or  reversal  of  plan  to  be  noted  in  mankind  is 
connected  with  the  relation  of  the  two  sexes. 
As  will  presently  be  indicated,  life  itself  was  in 
the  beginning  female,  so  far  as  sex  could  be 
postulated  of  it  at  all,  and  the  life-process  was 
primarily  a  female  process,  assisted  by  the  male. 
In  humankind  as  well,  nature  obviously  started 
out  on  the  plan  of  having  woman  the  dominant 
force,  with  man  as  an  aid;  but  after  a  certain 
time  there  was  a  reversal  of  plan,  and  man 
became  dominant,  and  woman  dropped  back 
into  a  somewhat  unstable  and  adventitious  rela- 
tion to  the  social  process.  Up  to  a  certain  point, 
in  fact,  in  his  physical  and  social  evolution  man 
shows  an  interesting  structural  and  mental 
adaptation  to  woman,  or  to  the  reproductive 
process  which  she  represents;  while  the  later 
stages  of  history  show,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
the  mental  attitude  of  woman,  and  consequently 
her  forms  of  behavior,  have  been  profoundly 
modified,  and  even  her  physical  life  deeply 
affected,  by  her  effort  to  adjust  to  man. 

The  only  attitude  which  nature  can  be  said 
to  show  toward  life  is  the  design  that  the  individ- 
ual shall  sustain  its  own  life,  and  at  death  leave 
others  of  its  kind — that  it  shall  get  food,  avoid 


The  Adventitious  Character  oj  Woman     225 

destruction,  and  reproduce.  In  pursuance  of 
this  policy  it  naturally  turns  out  that  those 
types  showing  greater  morphological  and  func- 
tional complexity,  along  with  freer  movement 
and  more  mental  ingenuity,  come  into  the  more 
perfect  control  and  use  of  their  environment,  and 
consequently  have  greater  likelihood  of  survival. 
Failing  of  this  greater  complexity,  their  chance 
of  life  lies  in  occupying  so  obscure  a  position,  so 
to  speak,  that  they  do  not  come  into  collision 
with  more  dominant  forms,  or  in  reproducing 
at  such  a  rate  as  to  survive  in  spite  of  this. 
The  number  of  devices  in  the  way  of  modifica- 
tion of  form  and  habit  to  secure  advantage  is 
practically  infinite,  but  all  progressive  species 
have  utilized  the  principle  of  sex  as  an  accessory 
of  success.  By  this  principle  greater  variability 
is  secured,  and  among  the  larger  number  of 
variations  there  is  always  a  chance  of  the  appear- 
ance of  one  of  superior  fitness.  The  male  in  many 
of  the  lower  forms  is  very  insignificant  in  size, 
economically  useless  (as  among  the  bees),  often 
a  parasite  on  the  female,  and,  as  many  biologists 
hold,  merely  a  secondary  device  or  afterthought 
of  nature,  designed  to  secure  greater  variation 
than  can  be  had  by  the  asexual  mode  of  repro- 
duction.    In  other  words,  he  is  of  use  to  the 


226  Sex  and  Society 

species  by  assisting  the  female  to  reproduce 
progressively  fitter  forms. 

When,  in  the  course  of  time,  sexual  repro- 
duction eventuated  in  a  mammalian  type,  with 
greater  intimacy  between  mother  and  offspring 
and  a  longer  period  of  dependence  of  offspring 
on  the  mother,  the  function  of  the  male  in  assist- 
ing the  female  became  social  as  well  as  biological ; 
and  this  was  pre-eminently  so  in  the  case  of 
man,  because  of  the  pre-eminent  helplessness  of 
the  human  child/  The  characteristic  help- 
lessness of  the  child,  which  at  first  thought 
appears  to  be  a  disadvantage,  is  in  fact  the 
source  of  human  superiority,  since  the  design  of 
nature  in  providing  this  condition  of  helpless- 
ness is  to  afford  a  lapse  of  time  sufficient  for  the 
growth  of  the  very  complex  mechanism,  the 
human  brain,  which,  along  with  free  hands,  is 
the  medium  through  which  man  begins  that 
reaction  on  his  environment — inventing,  exter- 
minating, cultivating,  domesticating,  organizing 
— which  ends  in  his  supremacy. 

It  is  plain,  therefore,  that  species  in  which 
growth  is  slow  are  at  an  advantage,  if  to  the  care 
and  nourishment  of  the  female  are  added  the 

'  See  John  Fiske,  Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,  Vol.  II, 
pp.  342  ff. 


The  Adventitious  Character  of  Woman     227 

providence  and  protection  of  the  male ;  and  this 
is  especially  true  in  mankind,  where  growth 
is  not  completed  for  a  long  period  of  years.  In 
this  connection  we  have  an  explanation  of  the 
alleged  greater  variability  of  the  male.  Instead 
of  an  insignificant  addendum  to  the  reproduc- 
tive process,  he  becomes  larger  than  the  female, 
masterful,  jealous,  a  fighting  specialization — 
still  an  attache  of  the  female,  but  now  a  defender 
and  provider.  This  is  the  general  condition 
among  mammals;  and  among  mankind  the 
longer  dependence  of  children  results  in  a  corre- 
spondingly lengthened  and  intimate  association 
of  the  parents,  which  we  denominate  marriage. 
For  Westermarck  is  quite  right  in  his  view  that 
children  are  not  the  result  of  marriage,  but 
marriage  is  the  result  of  children.  From  this 
point  of  view  marriage  is  a  union  favored  by  the 
scheme  of  nature  because  it  is  favorable  to  the 
rearing  and  training  of  children,  and  the  groups 
practicing  marriage,  or  its  animal  analogue, 
have  the  best  chance  of  survival. 

But  the  evolution  of  a  courageous  and  offen- 
sive disposition  naturally  did  not  result  in  an 
eminently  domestic  disposition.  Man  did  the 
hunting  and  fighting.  He  was  attached  to  the 
woman,  but  he  was  not  steady.     He  did  not 


228  Sex  and  Society 

stay  at  home.  The  woman  and  the  child  were 
the  core  of  society,  the  fixed  point,  the  point  to 
which  man  came  back.  There  consequently 
grew  up  a  sort  of  dual  society  and  dual  activity. 
Man  represented  the  more  violent  and  spasmodic 
activities,  involving  motion  and  skilful  co- 
ordinations, as  well  as  organization  for  hunting 
and  fighting ;  while  woman  carried  on  the  steady, 
settled  life.  She  was  not  able  to  wander  readily 
from  a  fixed  point,  on  account  of  her  children; 
and,  indeed,  her  physical  organization  fitted  her 
for  endurance  rather  than  movement.  Conse- 
quently her  attention  was  turned  to  industries, 
since  these  were  compatible  with  settled  and 
stationary  habits.  Agriculture,  pottery,  weav- 
ing, tanning,  and  all  the  industrial  processes 
involved  in  working  up  the  by-products  of  the 
chase,  were  developed  by  her.  She  domesticated 
man  and  assisted  him  in  domesticating  the 
animals.  She  built  her  house,  and  it  was  hers. 
She  did  not  go  to  her  husband's  group  after  mar- 
riage. The  child  was  hers,  and  remained  a 
member  of  her  group.  The  germ  of  social  organ- 
ization was,  indeed,  the  woman  and  her  children 
and  her  children's  children.  The  old  women 
were  the  heads  of  civil  society,  though  the  men 


The  Adventitious  Character  of  Woman     229 

had  developed  a  fighting  organization  and  tech- 
nique which  eventually  swallowed  them  up. 

From  the  standpoint  of  physical  force,  man 
was  the  master,  and  was  often  brutal  enough. 
But  woman  led  an  independent  life,  to  some 
extent.  She  was,  if  not  economically  inde- 
pendent, at  least  economically  creative,  and 
she  enjoyed  the  great  advantage  of  being  less 
definitely  interested  in  man  than  he  was  in  her. 
For  while  woman  is  more  deeply  involved  physi- 
ologically in  the  reproductive  life  than  man, 
she  is  apparently  less  involved  from  the  stand- 
point of  immediate  stimulus,  or  her  interest  is 
less  acute  in  consciousness.  The  excess  activity 
which  characterizes  man  in  his  relation  to  the 
general  environment  holds  also  for  his  attitude 
toward  woman.  Not  only  is  the  male  the  wooer 
among  the  higher  orders  of  animals  and  among 
men,  but  he  has  developed  all  the  accessories 
for  attracting  attention — in  the  animals,  plum- 
age, color,  voice,  and  graceful  and  surprising 
forms  of  motion;  and  in  man,  ornament  and 
courageous  action.  For  primitive  man,  like  the 
male  animal,  was  distinguished  by  ornament. 

Up  to  this  time  the  relation  of  man  to  woman 
was  the  natural  development  of  a  relation  calcu- 


230  Sex  and  Society 

lated  to  secure  the  best  results  for  the  species. 
His  predacious  disposition  had  been,  in  part  at 
least,  developed  in  the  service  of  woman  and  her 
child,  and  he  was  emotionally  dependent  on  her 
to  such  a  degree  that  he  used  all  the  arts  of  attrac- 
tion at  his  command  to  secure  a  relation  with 
her.  In  the  course  of  time,  however,  an  impor- 
tant change  took  place  in  environmental  condi- 
tions. While  woman  had  been  doing  the  general 
work  and  had  developed  the  beginnings  of  many- 
industries,  man  had  become  a  specialist  along 
another  line.  His  occupation  had  been  almost 
exclusively  the  pursuit  of  animals  or  conflict 
with  his  neighbors,  and  in  this  connection  he 
had  become  the  inventor  of  weapons  and  traps, 
and  in  addition  had  learned  the  value  of  acting 
in  concert  with  his  companions.  But  a  hunting 
life  cannot  last  forever;  and  when  large  game 
began  to  be  exhausted,  man  found  himself 
forced  to  abandon  his  destructive  and  predacious 
activities,  and  adopt  the  settled  occupations  of 
woman.  To  these  he  brought  all  the  inventive 
technique  and  capacity  for  organized  action 
which  he  had  developed  in  his  hunting  and 
fighting  life,  with  the  result  that  he  became  the 
master  of  woman  in  a  new  sense.  Not  sud- 
denly, but  in  the  course  of  time,  he  usurped  her 


The  Adventitious  Character  0}  Woman     231 

primacy  in  the  industrial  pursuits,  and  through 
his  organization  of  industry  and  the  appKcation 
of  invention  to  the  industrial  processes  became 
a  creator  of  wealth  on  a  scale  before  unknown. 
Gradually  also  he  began  to  rely  not  altogether 
on  ornament,  exploits,  and  trophies  to  get  the 
attention  and  favor  of  woman.  When  she  was 
reduced  to  a  condition  of  dependence  on  his 
activity,  wooing  became  a  less  formidable  mat- 
ter; he  purchased  her  from  her  male  kindred, 
and  took  her  to  his  own  group,  where  she  was 
easier  to  control. 

In  unadvanced  stages  of  society,  where  machin- 
ery and  the  division  of  labor  and  a  high  degree  of 
organization  in  industry  have  not  been  intro- 
duced, and  among  even  our  own  lower  classes, 
woman  still  retains  a  relation  to  industrial  activ- 
ities and  has  a  relatively  independent  status. 
Among  the  Indians  of  this  country  it  was  recog- 
nized that  a  man  could  not  become  wealthy 
except  through  the  possession  of  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  wives  to  work  up  for  trade  the  products 
of  the  chase ;  and  today  the  West  African  youth 
does  not  seek  a  young  woman  in  marriage  but 
an  old  one,  preferably  a  widow,  who  knows  all 
about  the  arts  of  preparing  and  adulterating 
rubber.    Among  peasants,  also,  and  plain  people 


232  Sex  and  Society 

the  proverb  recognizes  that  the  "gray  mare  is 
the  better  horse."  The  heavy,  strong,  enduring, 
patient,  often  dominant  t3^e,  frequently  seen 
among  the  lower  classes,  where  alone  woman  is 
still  economically  functional,  is  probably  a  good 
representative  of  what  the  women  of  our  race 
were  before  they  were  reduced  by  man  to  a  con- 
dition of  parasitism  which,  in  our  middle  and 
so-called  higher  classes,  has  profoundly  affected 
their  physical,  mental,  and  moral  life. 

On  the  moral  side,  particularly,  man's  dis- 
position to  bend  the  situation  to  his  pleasure 
placed  woman  in  a  hard  position  and  resulted 
in  the  distortion  of  her  nature,  or  rather  in  bring- 
ing to  the  front  elemental  traits  which  under  our 
moral  code  are  not  reckoned  the  best.  In  the  ani- 
mal world  the  female  is  noted  for  her  indirection. 
On  account  of  the  necessity  of  protecting  her 
young,  she  is  cautious  and  cunning,  and  in  con- 
trast with  the  open  and  pugnacious  methods  of 
the  more  untrammeled  male,  she  relies  on  sober 
colors,  concealment,  evasion,  and  deception  of 
the  senses.  This  quality  of  cunning  is,  of  course, 
not  immoral  in  its  origin,  being  merely  a  pro- 
tective instinct  developed  along  with  maternal 
feeling.  In  woman,  also,  this  tendency  to  pre- 
vail^^b^passive  means  rather  than  by  assault  is 


The  Adventitious  Character  oj  Woman     233 

natural;  and  especially  under  a  system  of  male 
control,  where  self-realization  is  secured  either 
through  the  manipulation  of  man  or  not  at  all,  a 
resort  to  trickery,  indirection,  and  hypocrisy  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at.  Man  has,  however, 
always  insisted  that  woman  shall  be  better  than 
he  is,  and  her  immoralities  are  usually  not  such 
as  he  greatly  disapproves.  There  has,  in  fact, 
been  developed  a  peculiar  code  of  morals  to  cover 
the  peculiar  case  of  woman.  This  may  be  called 
a  morality  of  the  person  and  of  the  bodily  habits, 
as  contrasted  with  the  commercial  and  public 
morality  of  man.  Purity,  constancy,  reserve, 
and  devotion  are  the  qualities  In  woman  which  j 
please  and  flatter  the  jealous  male ;  and  woman  ■ 
has  responded  to  these  demands  both  really  and 
seemingly.  Without  any  consciousness  of  what 
she  was  doing  (for .all  moral  traditions  fall  in  fhe 
general  psychological  region  of  habit),  she  acts 
in  the  manner  which  makes  her  most  pleasing  to 
men.  And — always  with  the  rather  definite 
realization  before  her  of  what  a  dreadful  thing  it 
is  to  be  an  old  maid — she  has  naively  insisted 
that  her  sisters  shall  play  well  within  the  game, 
and  has  become  herself  the  most  strict  censor 
of  that  morality  which  has  become  traditionally 
associated  with  woman.     Fearing  the  obloquy 


234  S^^  ^*^^  Society 

which  the  world  attaches  to  a  bad  woman,  she 
throws  the  first  stone  at  any  woman  who  bids 
for  the  favor  of  men  by  overstepping  the 
modesty  of  nature.  Morahty,  in  the  most  gen- 
eral sense,  represents  the  code  under  which 
activities  are  best  carried  on,  and  is  worked  out 
in  the  school  of  experience.  It  is  pre-eminently 
an  adult  and  a  male  system,  and  men  are  intel- 
ligent enough  to  recognize  that  neither  women 
nor  children  have  passed  through  this  school. 
It  is  on  this  account  that,  while  man  is  merciless 
to  woman  from  the  standpoint  of  personal 
behavior,  he  exempts  her  from  anything  in  the 
way  of  contractual  morality,  or  views  her  defec- 
tions in  this  regard  with  allowance  and  even 
with  amusement. 

In  the  absence  of  any  participation  in  com- 
mercial activity  and  with  no  capital  but  her 
personal  charms  and  her  wits,  and  with  the 
possibility  of  realizing  on  these  only  through  a 
successful  appeal  to  man,  woman  naturally  puts 
her  best  foot  first.  It  was,  of  course,  always 
one  of  the  functions  of  the  female  to  charm  the 
male;  but  so  long  as  w^oman  maintained  her 
position  of  economic  usefulness  and  her  quasi- 
independence  she  had  no  great  problem,  for 
there  was  never  a  chance  in  primitive  society, 


The  Adventitious  Character  0}  Woman     235 

any  more  than  in  animal  society,  that  a  woman 
would  go  unmated.  But  when  through  man's 
economic  and  social  organization,  and  the  male 
initiative,  she  became  dependent,  and  when  in 
consequence  he  began  to  pick  and  choose  with  a 
degree  of  fastidiousness,  and  when  the  less 
charming  women  were  not  married— especially 
when  "invidious  distinctions"  arose  between 
the  wed  and  unwed,  and  the  desirably  wed  and 
the  undesirably  wed,  woman  had  to  charm  for 
her  life ;  and  she  not  only  employed  the  passive 
arts  innate  with  her  sex,  but  flashed  forth  in  all 
the  glitter  which  had  been  one  of  man's  accesso- 
ries in  courtship,  but  which  he  had  dispensed 
with  when  the  superiority  acquired  through 
occupational  pursuits  enabled  him  to  do  so. 
Under  a  new  stimulation  to  be  attractive,  and 
with  the  addition  of  ornament  to  the  reper- 
tory of  her  charms,  woman  has  assumed  an 
almost  aggressive  attitude  toward  courtship. 
The  means  of  attraction  she  employs  are  so  highly 
elaborated,  and  her  technique  is  so  finished, 
that  she  is  really  more  active  in  courtship  than 
man.  We  speak  of  man  as  the  wooer,  but  falling 
in  love  is  really  mediated  by  the  woman.  By 
dress,  behavior,  coquetry,  modesty,  reserve,  and 
occasional  boldness  she  gains  the  attention  of 


236  Sex  and  Society 

man  and  infatuates  him.  He  does  the  courting, 
but  she  controls  the  process.  "Er  glaubt  zu 
schieben,  und  er  wird  geschoben." 

The  condition  of  limited  stimulation,  also,  in 
which  woman  finds  herself  as  a  result  of  the  con- 
trol by  man  of  wealth,  of  affairs,  of  the  sub- 
stantial interests  of  society,  and  even  of  her  own 
personality,  leads  woman  to  devote  herself  to 
display  as  an  interest  in  itself,  regardless  of  its 
effect  on  men.  In  doing  this  she  is  really  falling 
back  on  an  instinct.  One  of  the  most  powerful 
stimulations  to  either  sex  is  glitter,  in  the  most 
general  sense,  and  the  interest  in  showing  off 
begins  in  the  coloration  and  plumage  of  animals, 
and  continues  as  ornament  in  the  human  species. 
It  is  true  that  the  wooing  connotation  of  orna- 
ment was  originally  its  most  important  one,  and 
that  it  was  characteristic  of  man  in  particular; 
but  woman  has  generalized  it  as  an  interest,  and 
as  a  means  of  self-realization.  She  seeks  it  as 
a  means  of  charming  men,  of  outdoing  other 
women,  and  as  an  artistic  interest;  and  her 
attention  often  takes  that  direction  to  such  a 
degree  that  its  acquisition  means  satisfaction, 
and  its  lack  discontent.  Sometimes,  indeed, 
when  a  woman  is  married  and  knows  that  she  is 
**sped,"  she  drops  the  display  pose  altogether, 


The  Adventitious"^  Character  oj  Woman     237 

tends  to  lose  herself  in  household  interests,  and 
to  become  a  slattern.  On  the  other  hand,  she 
often  makes  marriage  the  occasion  of  display  on 
a  more  elaborate  scale,  and  is  pitiless  in  her 
demands  for  the  means  to  this.  A  glance  at  the 
windows  of  our  great  stores  shows  that  men  have 
organized  their  business  in  a  full  appreciation 
of  these  facts.  Dressing,  indeed,  becomes  a 
competitive  game  with  women,  and  since  their 
opponents  and  severest  critics  are  women,  it 
turns  out  curiously  enough  that  they  dress  even 
more  with  reference  to  the  opinion  of  women 
than  for  men. 

The  land  hath  bubbles  as  the  water  has, 
And  these  are  of  them. 

It  would,  of  course,  be  absurd  to  censure 
woman  too  greatly  for  these  frailties,  and  it 
would  be  very  unjust  to  imply  that  all  women 
share  them.  Some  women,  in  adapting  them- 
selves to  the  situation,  follow  apparently,  a  bent 
acquired  in  connection  with  the  maternal 
instinct,  and  become  true  and  devoted  and  grand 
to  a  degree  hardly  known  by  man.  Others,  fol- 
lowing a  bent  gotten  along  with  coquetry  in 
connection  with  the  wooing  instinct,  and  having 
no  activity  through  which  their  behavior  is 
standardized,  become  difficile,  unreal,  inefficient, 


238  Sex  and  Society 

exacting,  unsatisfied,  absurd.  And  we  have  also 
the  paradox  that  the  same  woman  can  be  the 
two  things  at  different  times.  There  is  there- 
fore a  basis  of  truth  in  Pope's  hard  saying  that 
\  "Women  have  no  characters  at  all."  Because 
their  problem  is  not  to  accommodate  to  the  solid 
realities  of  the  world  of  experience  and  sense, 
but  to  adjust  themselves  to  the  personality  of 
men,  it  is  not  surprising  that  they  should  assume 
;  protean  shapes. 

Moreover,  man  is  so  affected  by  the  charms 
of  woman,  and  offers  so  easy  a  mark  for  her 
machinations,  as  to  invite  exploitation.  Having 
been  evolved  largely  through  the  stimulus  of  the 
female  presence,  he  continues  to  be  more  pro- 
foundly affected  by  her  presence  and  behavior 
than  by  any  other  stimulus  whatever,  unless  it 
be  the  various  forms  of  combat.  From  Samson 
and  Odysseus  down,  history  and  story  recognize 
the  ease  and  frequency  with  which  a  woman 
makes  a  fool  of  a  man.  The  male  protective 
and  sentimental  attitude  is  indeed  incompatible 
with  resistance.  To  charm,  pursue,  court,  and 
possess  the  female,  involve  a  train  of  memories 
which  color  all  after-relations  with  the  whole  sex. 
In  both  animals  and  men  there  is  an  instinctive 
disposition  to  take  a  great  deal  off  the  female. 


The  Adventitious  Character  of  Woman     239 

The  male  animal  takes  the  assaults  of  the  female 
complacently  and  shamefacedly,  "just  like 
folks."  Peasants  laugh  at  the  hysterical  out- 
breaks of  their  women,  and  the  "bold,  bad  man" 
is  as  likely  to  be  henpecked  as  any  other. 
Woman  is  a  disturbing  element  in  business  and 
in  school  to  a  degree  not  usually  apprehended. 
In  her  presence  a  man  instinctively  assumes  a 
different  attitude.  He  is,  in  fact,  so  susceptible 
as  seemingly,  almost,  to  want  to  be  victimized, 
and,  as  Locke  expressed  the  matter,  "It  is  in 
vain  to  find  fault  with  those  arts  of  deceiving 
wherein  men  find  pleasure  to  be  deceived." 

This  disposition  of  man  and  the  detached 
condition  of  woman  have  much  to  do  with  the 
emergence  of  the  adventuress  and  the  sporting- 
woman.  Human  nature  was  made  for  action; 
and  perhaps  the  most  distressing  and  discon- 
certing situation  which  confronts  it  is  to  be 
played  on  by  stimulations  without  the  ability  to 
function.  The  mere  superinducing  of  passivity, 
as  in  the  extreme  case  of  solitary  confinement,  is 
sufficient  to  produce  insanity;  and  the  emotion 
of  dread,  or  passive  fear,  is  said  to  be  the  most 
painful  of  emotions,  because  there  is  no  possi- 
bility of  relief  by  action.  Modern  woman  is  in  a 
similar  condition  of  constraint  and  unrest,  which 


240  Sex  and  Society 

produces  organic  ravages  for  which  no  luxury 
can  compensate.     The  general  ill-health  of  girls 
of  the  better  classes,  and  the  equally  general 
post-matrimonial  breakdown,  are  probably  due 
largely  to  the  fact  that  the  nervous  organization 
demands  more  normal  stimulations  and  reactions 
than  are  supplied.      The  American  woman  of 
the  better  classes  has  superior  rights  and  no 
duties,  and  yet  she  is  worrying  herself  to  death — 
not  over  specific  troubles,  but  because  she  has  ^ 
lost  her  connection  with  reality.     Many  women, '' 
more  intelligent  and  energetic  than  their  hus- 
bands and  brothers,  have  no  more  serious  occu- 
pations than  to  play  the  house-cat,  with  or  with- , 
out  ornament.     It  is  a  wonder  that  more  of  . 
them  do  not  lose  their  minds;  and  that  more  of 
them  do  not  break  with,  the  system  entirely  is 
due  solely  to  the  inhibitive  effects  of  early  habit 
and  suggestion. 

As  long  as  woman  is  comfortably  cared  for  by 
the  men  of  her  group  or  by  marriage,  she  is  not 
likely  to  do  anything  rash,  especially  if  the  moral 
standards  in  her  family  and  community  are 
severe,  ^ut  an  unattached  woman  has  a  ten- 
dency to  become  an  adventuress — not  so  much 
on  economic  as  on  psychological  grounds.  Life 
is  rarely  so  hard  that  a  young  woman  cannot  earn 


The  Adventitious  Character  of  Woman     241 

her  bread;  but  she  cannot  always  Hve  and 
have  the  stimulations  she  craves.  As  long,  how- 
ever, as  she  remains  with  her  people  and  is 
known  to  the  whole  community,  she  realizes  that 
any  infraction  of  the  habits  of  the  group,  any 
immodesty  or  immorality,  will  ruin  her  stand- 
ing and  her  chance  of  marriage,  and  bring  her 
into  shame  and  confusion.  Consequently,  good 
behavior  is  a  protective  measure— instinctive, 
of  course ;  for  it  is  not  true  that  the  ordinary  girl 
has  imagination  enough  to  think  out  a  general 
attitude  toward  life  other  than  that  which  is 
habitual  in  her  group.  But  when  she  becomes 
detached  from  home  and  group,  and  is  removed 
not  only  from  surveillance,  but  from  the  ordi- 
nary stimulation  and  interest  afforded  by  social 
life  and  acquaintanceship,  her  inhibitions  are 
likely  to  be  relaxed. 

The  girl  coming  from  the  country  to  the  city 
affords  one  of  the  clearest  cases  of  detachment. 
Assuming  that  she  comes  to  the  city  to  earn  her 
living,  her  work  is  not  only  irksome,  but  so  unre- 
munerative  that  she  finds  it  impossible  to  obtain 
those  accessories  to  her  personality  in  the  way 
of  finery  which  would  be  sufficient  to  hold  her 
attention  and  satisfy  her  if  they  were  to  be  had 
in  plenty.     She  is  lost  from  the  sight  of  everyone 


242  Sex  and  Society 

whose  opinion  has  any  meaning  for  her,  while 
the  separation  from  her  home  community  renders 
her  condition  peculiarly  flat  and  lonely;  and 
she  is  prepared  to  accept  any  opportunity  for 
stimulation  offered  her,  unless  she  has  been 
morally  standardized  before  leaving  home.  To 
be  completely  lost  sight  of  may,  indeed,  become 
an  object  under  these  circumstances — the  only 
means  by  which  she  can  without  confusion 
accept  unapproved  stimulations — and  to  pass 
from  a  regular  to  an  irregular  life  and  back 
again  before  the  fact  has  been  noted  is  not  an 
unusual  course. 

The  professionally  irregular  class  of  women 
represents  an  extreme  and  unfortunate  result  of 
an  adventitious  and  not-completely-functional 
relation  to  society.  They  do  not  form  a  class 
in  the  psychological  sense,  but  only  a  trade. 
There  are  many  sorts  of  natural  dispositions 
among  them — as  many  perhaps  as  will  be  found 
in  any  other  occupation.  None  of  the  reputable 
occupations  are  homogeneous  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  natural  dispositions  of  the  men  and 
women  who  compose  them,  and  the  same  is  true 
of  the  disreputable  occupations.  ]\Iany  women 
of  fine  natural  character  and  disposition  are 
drawn  in  a  momentary  and  incidental  way  into 


The  Adventitious  Character  oj  Woman      243 

an  irregular  life,  and  recover,  settle  down  to  regu- 
lar modes  of  living,  drift  farther,  are  married, 
and  make  uncommonly  good  wives.  In  this 
respect  the  adventuress  is  more  fortunate  than 
the  criminal  (that  other  great  adventitious  prod- 
uct), because  the  criminal  is  labeled  and  his 
record  follows  him,  making  reformation  dif^cult ; 
while  the  in-and-out  life  of  woman  with  reference 
to  what  we  call  virtue  is  not  officially  noted  and 
does  not  bring  consequences  so  inevitable.  But 
"if  you  drive  nature  out  at  the  door,  she  will 
come  back  through  the  window;"  and  this  inter- 
est in  greater  stimulation  is,  I  believe,  the  domi- 
nant force  in  determining  the  choice — or,  rather, 
the  drift — of  the  so-called  sporting-woman.  She 
is  seeking  what,  from  the  psychological  stand- 
point, may  be  called  a  normal  life. 

The  human  mind  was  formed  and  fixed  once 
for  all  in  very  early  times,  through  a  life  of  action 
and  emergency,  when  the  species  was  fighting, 
contriving,  and  inventing  its  way  up  from  the 
sub-human  condition;  and  the  ground-patterns 
of  interest  have  never  been,  and  probably  never 
will  be,  fundamentally  changed.  Consequently, 
all  pursuits  are  irksome  unless  they  are  able,  so 
to  speak,  to  assume  the  guise  of  this  early  con- 
flict for  life  in  connection  with  which  interest 


244  ^^^  ^^^  Society 

and  modes  of  attention  were  developed.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  however,  anything  in  the  nature 
of  a  problem  or  a  pursuit  stimulates  the  emo- 
tional centers,  and  is  interesting,  because  it  is 
of  the  same  general  pattern  as  these  primitive 
pursuits  and  problems.  Scientific  and  artistic 
pursuits,  business,  and  the  various  occupational 
callings  are  analogues  of  the  hunting,  flight, 
pursuit,  courtship,  and  capture  of  early  racial 
life,  and  the  problems  they  present  may,  and 
do,  become  all-absorbing.  The  moral  and  edu- 
cational problem  of  development  has  been, 
indeed,  to  substitute  for  the  simple,  co-ordina- 
tive  killing,  escaping,  charming,  deceiving  acti- 
vities of  early  life,  analogues  which  are  increas- 
ingly serviceable  to  society,  and  to  expand 
into  a  general  social  feeling  the  affection  devel- 
oped first  in  connection  with  courtship,  the  rear- 
ing of  children,  and  joint  predatory  and  defen- 
sive enterprises.  The  gamester,  adventuress, 
and  criminal  are  not  usually  abnormal  in  a  bio- 
logical sense,  but  have  failed,  through  defective 
manipulation  of  their  attention,  to  get  interested 
in  the  right  kind  of  problems.  Their  attention 
has  not  been  diverted  from  interests  of  a  primary 
type  containing  a  maximum  of  the  sensory,  to 
interests  of  an  analogous  type  containing  more 


The  Adventitious  Character  of  Woman     245 

elements  of  reflection,  and  involving  problems 
and  processes  of  greater  benefit  to  society. 

The  remedy  for  the  irregularity,  pettiness,  ill- 
health,  and  unserviceableness  of  modern  woman 
V  seems  to  lie,  therefore,  along  educational  lines. 
Not  in  a  general  and  cultural  education  alone,  but 
in  a  special  and  occupational  interest  and  prac- 
tice for  women,  married  and  unmarried.  This 
should  be  preferably  gainful,  though  not  onerous 
nor  incessant.  It  should,  in  fact,  be  a  play- 
interest,  in  the  sense  that  the  interest  of  every 
artist  and  craftsman,  who  loves  his  work  and 
functions  through  it,  is  a  play-interest.  Normal 
life  without  normal  stimulation  is  not  possible, 
and  the  stimulations  answering  to  the  nature  of 
the  nervous  organization  seem  best  supplied  by 
interesting  forms  of  work.  This  reinstates 
racially  developed  stimulations  better  than  any- 
thing except  play;  and  interesting  work  is, 
psychologically  speaking,  play. 

Some  kind  of  practical  activity  for  women 
would  also  relieve  the  strain  on  the  matrimonial 
situation— a  situation  which  at  present  is  ab- 
normal and  almost  impossible.  The  demands 
for  attention  from  husbands  on  the  part  of  wives 
are  greater  than  is  compatible  with  the  absorbing 
general  activities  of  the  latter,  and  women  are 


246  Sex  and  Society 

not  only  neglected  by  the  husband  in  a  manner 
which  did  not  happen  in  the  case  of  the  lover, 
but  they  are  jealous  of  men  in  a  more  general 
sense  than  men  are  jealous  of  women.  In  the 
absence  of  other  interests  they  are  so  dependent 
on  the  personal  interest  that  they  unconsciously 
put  a  jealous  construction,  not  only  on  personal 
behavior,  but  on  the  most  general  and  indijfferent 
actions  of  the  men  with  whom  their  lives  are 
bound  up;  and  this  process  is  so  obscure  in 
consciousness  that  it  is  usually  impossible  to 
determine  what  the  matter  really  is. 

An  examination,  also,  of  so-called  happy  mar- 
riages shows  very  generally  that  they  do  not, 
except  for  the  common  interest  of  children,  rest 
on  the  true  comradeship  of  like  minds,  but 
represent  an  equilibrium  reached  through  an 
extension  of  the  maternal  interest  of  the  woman 
to  the  man,  whereby  she  looks  after  his  personal 
needs  as  she  does  after  those  of  the  children — 
cherishing  him,  in  fact,  as  a  child — or  in  an 
extension  to  woman  on  the  part  of  the  man  of 
that  nurture  and  affection  which  is  in  his  nature 
to  give  to  pets  and  all  helpless  (and  preferably 
dumb)  creatures. 

Obviously  a  more  solid  basis  of  association  is 
necessary  than  either  of  these  two  instinctively 


The  Adventitious  Character  of  Woman      247 

based  compromises;  and  the  practice  of  an 
occupational  activity  of  her  own  choosing  by 
woman,  and  a  generous  attitude  toward  this  on 
the  part  of  man,  would  contribute  to  relieve  the 
strain  and  to  make  marriage  more  frequently 
successful. 


THE  MIND  OF  WOMAN  AND  THE 
LOWER  RACES 


THE  MIND  OF  WOMAN  AND  THE 
LOWER  RACES 

I 

The  mind  is  a  very  wonderful  thing,  but  it 
is  questionable  whether  it  is  more  wonderful 
than  some  of  the  instinctive  modes  of  behavior 
of  lower  forms  of  life.  If  mind  is  viewed  as  an 
adjustment  to  external  conditions  for  the  pur- 
pose of  securing  control,  the  human  mind  is  no 
more  wonderful  in  its  way  than  the  homing  and 
migratory  instincts  of  birds;  the  tropic  quality 
of  the  male  butterfly  which  leads  it  to  the  female 
though  she  is  imprisoned  in  a  cigar-box  in  a 
dark  room ;  or  the  peculiar  sensitivity  of  the  bat 
which  enables  it,  though  blinded,  to  thread  its 
way  through  a  maze  of  obstructions  hung  about 
a  room. 

The  fact  of  sensitivity,  in  short,  or  the 
quality  of  response  to  stimulation,  is  more 
wonderful  than  its  particular  formulation  in  the 
human  brain.  Mind  simply  represents  a  special 
development  of  the  quality  of  sensitivity  com- 
mon to  organic  nature,  and  analogous  to  the 
sensitivity    of    the    photographic    plate.     The 

251 


252  Sex  and  Society 

brain  receives  impressions,  records  them,  remem- 
bers them,  compares  new  experiences  with  old, 
and  modifies  behavior,  in  the  presence  of  a 
new  or  recurrent  stimulation,  in  view  of  the 
pleasure-pain  connotation  of  similar  situations 
in  the  past. 

In  very  low  forms  of  life,  as  is  well  known, 
there  is  no  development  of  brain  or  special 
organs  of  sense ;  but  the  organism  is  pushed  and 
pulled  about  by  light,  heat,  gravity,  and  acid 
and  other  chemical  forces,  and  is  unable  to  de- 
cline to  act  on  any  stimulus  reaching  it.  It 
reacts  in  certain  characteristic,  habitual,  and 
adequate  ways,  because  it  responds  uniformly 
to  the  same  stimulation;  but  it  has  no  choice, 
and  is  controlled  by  the  environment.  The 
object  of  brain  development  is  to  reverse  these 
conditions  and  control  the  actions  of  the  organ- 
ism, and  of  the  outside  world  as  well,  from 
within.  With  the  development  of  the  special 
organs  of  sense,  memory,  and  consequent  ability 
to  compare  present  experiences  with  past,  with 
inhibition  or  the  ability  to  decline  to  act  on  a 
stimulus,  and,  finally,  with  abstraction  or  the 
power  of  separating  general  from  particular 
aspects,  we  have  a  condition  where  the  organism 
sits  still,  as  it  wTre,  and  picks  and  chooses  its 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     253 

reactions  to  the  outer  world;  and,  by  working 
in  certain  lines  to  the  exclusion  of  others,  it  gains 
in  its  turn  control  of  the  environment,  and 
begins  to  reshape  it. 

All  the  higher  animals  possess  in  some  degree 
the  powers  of  memory,  judgment,  and  choice; 
but  in  man  nature  followed  the  plan  of  develop- 
ing enormously  the  memory,  on  which  depend 
abstraction,  or  the  power  of  general  ideas,  and 
the  reason.  In  order  to  secure  this  result,  the 
brain,  or  surface  for  recording  experience,  was 
developed  out  of  all  proportion  with  the  body. 
In  the  average  European  the  brain  weighs  about 
1,360  grams,  or  3  per  cent,  of  the  body  weight, 
while  the  average  brain  weight  of  some  of  the 
great  anthropoid  apes  is  only  about  360  grams, 
or,  in  the  orangoutang,  one-half  of  i  per  cent,  of 
the  body  weight.  In  point  of  fact,  nature  seems 
to  have  reached  the  limit  of  her  materials  in 
creating  the  human  species.  The  development 
of  hands  freed  from  locomotion  and  a  brain  out 
of  proportion  to  bodily  weight  are  tours  de  force, 
and,  so  to  speak,  an  afterthought,  which  put  the 
heaviest  strain  possible  on  the  materials  em- 
ployed, and  even  diverted  some  organs  from 
their  original  design.  A  number  of  ailments 
like  hernia,  appendicitis,  and  uterine  displace- 


254  S^^  ^^d  Society 

merit,  are  due  to  the  fact  that  the  erect  posture 
assumed  when  the  hands  were  diverted  from 
locomotion  to  prehensile  uses  put  a  strain  not 
originally  contemplated  on  certain  tissues  and 
organs.  Similarly,  the  proportion  of  idiocy  and 
insanity  in  the  human  species  shows  that  nature 
had  reached  the  limit  of  elasticity  in  her  materials 
and  began  to  take  great  risks.  The  brain  is  a 
delicate  and  elaborate  organ  on  the  structural 
side,  and  in  these  cases  it  is  not  put  together 
properly,  or  it  gets  hopelessly  out  of  order. 
This  strain  on  the  materials  is  evident  in  all 
races  and  in  both  sexes,  and  indicates  that  the 
same  general  structural  ground-pattern  has  been 
followed  in  all  members  of  the  species. 

Viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  brain  weight, 
all  races  are,  broadly  speaking,  in  the  same  class. 
For  while  the  relatively  small  series  of  brains 
from  the  black  race  examined  by  anthropologists 
shows  a  slight  inferiority  in  weight — about  45 
grams  in  negroes — when  compared  with  white 
brains,  the  yellow  race  shows  more  than  a  corre- 
sponding superiority  to  the  white ;  in  the  Chinese 
about  70  grams.  There  is  also  apparently  no 
superiority  in  brain  weight  in  modern  over 
ancient  times.  The  cranial  capacity  of  Euro- 
peans between  the  eleventh  and  eighteenth  cen- 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     255 

turies,  as  shown  by  the  cemeteries  of  Paris,  is  not 
appreciably  different  from  that  of  Frenchmen  of 
today,  and  the  Egyptian  mummies  show  larger 
cranial  capacity  than  the  modern  Egyptians. 
Furthermore,  the  limits  of  variation  between 
individuals  in  the  same  race  are  wider  than  the 
average  difference  between  races.  In  a  series 
of  500  white  brains,  the  lowest  and  highest 
brains  will  differ,  in  fact,  as  much  as  650  grams 
in  weight. 

There  is  also  no  ground  for  the  assumption 
that  the  brain  of  woman  is  inferior  to  that  of 
man;  for,  while  the  average  brain  of  woman  is 
smaller,  the  average  body  weight  is  also  smaller, 
and  it  is  open  to  question  whether  the  average 
brain  weight  of  woman  is  smaller  in  proportion 
to  body  weight.'  The  importance  of  brain 
weight  in  relation  to  intelligence,  moreover,  has 
usually  been  much  exaggerated  by  anthropolo- 
gists; for  intelligence  depends  on  the  rapidity 
and  range  of  the  acts  of  associative  memory,  and 
this  in  turn  on  the  complexity  of  the  neural  pro- 
cesses. Brains  are,  in  fact,  like  timepieces  in 
this  respect,  that  the  small  ones  work  "excellent 
well"  if  they  are  good  material  and  well  put 

I  See,  however,  Topinard,  Elements  d' anthropologic  generate 
PP-  557  ff- 


256  Sex  and  Society 

together.  Although  brains  occasionally  run 
above  2,000  grams  in  weight  (that  of  the  Russian 
novelist  Turgenieff  weighed  2,012),  the  brains 
of  many  eminent  men  are  not  distinguished 
for  their  great  size.  That  of  the  French  states- 
man Gambetta  weighed  only  1,160  grams.  It 
must  be  borne  in  mind  also  that  there  are  many 
individuals  among  the  lower  races  and  among 
women  having  brain  weights  much  in  excess  of 
that  of  that  of  the  average  male  white. 

Of  all  the  possible  ways  of  treating  the  brain 
for  the  purpose  of  testing  its  intelligence,  that  of 
weighing  is  the  least  satisfactory,  and  has  been 
most  indefatigably  practiced.  A  better  method, 
that  of  counting  the  nerve  cells,  has  been  lately 
introduced,  but  to  treat  a  single  brain  in  this 
way  is  a  work  of  years,  and  no  series  of  results 
exists.  In  the  meantime  Miss  Thompson, 
in  co-operation  with  Professor  Angell,  has  com- 
pleted a  study  of  the  mental  traits  of  men  and 
women  on  what  is  perhaps  the  best  available 
principle — that  of  a  series  of  laboratory  tests 
which  eliminate  or  take  into  consideration 
differences  due  to  the  characteristic  habits  of  the 
two  sexes.  Her  findings  are  probably  the  most 
important  contribution  in  this  field,   and  her 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     257 

general  conclusion  on  differences  of  sex  will,  I 
think,  hold  also  for  differences  of  race : 

The  point  to  be  emphasized  as  the  outcome  of  this 
study  is  that,  according  to  our  present  light,  the  psycho- 
logical differences  of  sex  seem  to  be  largely  due,  not  to 
difference  of  average  capacity,  nor  to  difference  in  type 
of  mental  activity,  but  to  differences  in  the  social  influences 
brought  to  bear  on  the  developing  individual  from  early 
infancy  to  adult  years.  The  question  of  the  future 
development  of  the  intellectual  life  of  women  is  one  of 
social  necessities  and  ideals  rather  than  of  the  inborn 
psychological  characteristics  of  sex.^ 

There  is  certainly  great  difference  in  the 
mental  ability  of  individuals,  and  there  are  prob- 
ably less  marked  differences  in  the  average 
ability  of  different  races;  but  difference  in 
natural  ability  is,  in  the  main,  a  characteristic 
of  the  individual,  not  of  race  or  of  sex.  It  is 
probable  that  brain  efficiency  (speaking  from 
the  biological  standpoint)  has  been,  on  the  aver- 
age, approximately  the  same  in  all  races  and  in 
both  sexes  since  nature  first  made  up  a  good 
working  model,  and  that  differences  in  intellec- 
tual expression  are  mainly  social  rather  than 
biological,  dependent  on  the  fact  that  different 
stages  of  culture  present  different  experiences 

I  Helen   B.   Thompson,    Psychological  Norms  in  Men   and 
Women,  p.  182. 


258  Sex  and  Society 

to  the   mind,   and   adventitious  circumstances 
direct  the  attention  to  different  fields  of  interest. 

II 

In  approaching  the  question  of  the  parity  or 
disparity  of  the  mental  ability  of  the  white  and 
the  lower  races,  we  bring  to  it  a  fixed  and  in- 
stinctive prejudice.  No  race  views  another  race 
with  that  generosity  with  which  it  views  itself. 
It  may  even  be  said  that  the  existence  of  a  social 
group  depends  on  its  taking  an  exaggerated  view 
of  its  own  importance ;  and  in  a  state  of  nature, 
at  least,  the  same  is  true  of  the  individual.  If 
self-preservation  is  the  first  law  of  nature,  there 
must  be  on  the  mental  side  an  acute  conscious- 
ness of  self,  and  a  habit  of  regarding  the  self  as 
of  more  importance  than  the  world  at  large. 
The  value  of  this  standpoint  lies  in  the  fact  that, 
while  a  wholesome  fear  of  the  enemy  is  important, 
a  wholesome  contempt  is  even  more  so.  Prais- 
ing one's  self  and  dispraising  an  antagonist 
creates  a  confidence  and  a  mental  superiority 
in  the  way  of  confidence.  The  vituperative 
recriminations  of  modern  prize-fighters,  the 
boastings  of  the  Homeric  heroes,  and  the  bdgan 
of  the  old  Germans,  like  the  back-talk  of  the 
small  boy,  were  calculated  to  screw  the  courage 


The  Mind  oj  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     259 

up;  and  the  Indians  of  America  usually  gave 
a  dance  before  going  on  the  war-path,  in  which 
by  pantomime  and  boasting  they  magnified 
themselves  and  their  past,  and  so  stimulated 
their  self-esteem  that  they  felt  invincible.  In 
race-prejudice  we  see  the  same  tendency  to 
exalt  the  self  and  the  group  at  the  expense  of 
outsiders.  The  alien  group  is  belittled  by 
attaching  contempt  to  its  peculiarities  and 
habits — its  color,  speech,  dress,  and  all  the  signs 
of  its  personality.  This  is  not  a  laudable  atti- 
tude, but  it  has  been  valuable  to  the  group,  be- 
cause a  bitter  and  contemptuous  feeling  is  an 
aid  to  good  fighting. 

No  race  or  nation  has  yet  freed  itself  from  this 
tendency  to  exalt  and  idealize  itself.  -It  is  very 
difficult  for  a  member  of  western  civilization  to 
understand  that  the  orientals  regard  us  with  a 
contempt  in  comparison  with  which  our  con- 
tempt for  them  is  feeble.  Our  bloodiness,  our 
newness,  our  lack  of  reverence,  our  land-greed, 
our  break-neck  speed  and  lack  of  appreciation 
of  leisure  make  Vandals  of  us.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  are  very  stupid  about  recognizing  the 
intelligence  of  orientals.  We  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  think  that  there  is  a  great  gulf  between 
ourselves  and  other  races;   and  this  persists  in 


26o  Sex  and  Society 

an  undefinable  way  after  scores  of  Japanese 
have  taken  high  rank  in  our  schools,  and  after 
Hindus  have  repeatedly  been  among  the  wran- 
glers in  mathematics  at  Cambridge.  It  is  only 
when  one  of  the  far  eastern  nations  has  come 
bodily  to  the  front  that  we  begin  to  ask  our- 
selves whether  there  is  not  an  error  in  our 
reckoning. 

The  instinct  to  belittle  outsiders  is  perhaps  at 
the  bottom  of  our  delusion  that  the  white  race 
has  one  order  of  mind  and  the  black  and  yellow 
races  have  another.  But,  while  a  prejudice — 
a  matter  of  instinct  and  emotion — may  well  be 
at  the  beginning  of  an  error  of  this  kind,  it  could 
not  sustain  itself  in  the  face  of  our  logical  habits 
unless  reinforced  by  an  error  of  the  judgment. 
And  this  error  is  found  in  the  fact  that  in  a  naive 
way  we  assume  that  our  steps  in  progress  from 
time  to  time  are  due  to  our  mental  superiority 
as  a  race  over  other  races,  and  to  the  mental 
superiority  of  one  generation  of  ourselves  over 
the  preceding. 

In  this  we  are  confusing  advance  in  culture 
with  brain  improvement.  If  we  should  assume 
a  certain  grade  of  intelligence,  fixed  and  invari- 
able in  all  individuals,  races,  and  times — an 
unwarranted   assumption,   of  course — progress 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     261 

would  still  be  possible,  provided  we  assumed  a 
characteristically  human  grade  of  intelligence 
to  begin  with.  With  associative  memory,  ab- 
straction, and  speech  men  are  able  to  compare 
the  present  with  the  past,  to  deliberate  and  dis- 
cuss, to  invent,  to  abandon  old  processes  for  new, 
to  focus  attention  on  special  problems,  to  en- 
courage specialization,  and  to  transmit  to  the 
younger  generation  a  more  intelligent  stand- 
point and  a  more  advanced  starting-point. 
Culture  is  the  accumulation  of  the  results  of 
activity,  and  culture  could  go  on  improving  for 
a  certain  time  even  if  there  were  a  retrogression 
in  intelligence.  If  all  the  chemists  in  class  A 
should  stop  work  tomorrow,  the  chemists  in 
class  B  would  still  make  discoveries.  These 
would  influence  manufacture,  and  progress 
would  result.  If  a  worker  in  any  specialty 
acquaints  himself  with  the  results  of  his  prede- 
cessors and  contemporaries  and  works,  he  will 
add  some  results  to  the  sum  of  knowledge  in  his 
line.  And  if  a  race  preserves  by  record  or  tradi- 
tion the  memory  of  what  past  generations  have 
done,  and  adds  a  little,  progress  is  secured 
whether  the  brain  improves  or  stands  still.  In 
the  same  way,  the  fact  that  one  race  has  ad- 
vanced farther  in  culture  than  another  does  not 


262  Sex  and  Society 

necessarily  imply  a  different  order  of  brain,  but 
may  be  due  to  the  fact  that  in  the  one  case  social 
arrangements  have  not  taken  the  shape  affording 
the  most  favorable  conditions  for  the  operation 
of  the  mind. 

If,  then,  v^e  make  due  allowance  for  our  in- 
stinctive tendency  as  a  white  group  to  disparage 
outsiders,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  for  our  ten- 
dency to  confuse  progress  in  culture  and  general 
intelligence  with  biological  modification  of  the 
brain,  we  shall  have  to  reduce  very  much  our 
usual  estimate  of  the  difference  in  mental  capa- 
city between  ourselves  and  the  lower  races,  if  we 
do  not  eliminate  it  altogether;  and  we  shall  per- 
haps have  to  abandon  altogether  the  view  that 
there  has  been  an  increase  in  the  mental  capacity 
of  the  white  race  since  prehistoric  times. 

The  first  question  arising  in  this  connection  is 
whether  any  of  the  characteristic  faculties  of  the 
human  mind — perception,  memory,  inhibition, 
abstraction — are  absent  or  noticeably  weak  in  the 
lower  races.  If  this  is  found  to  be  true,  we  have 
reason  to  attribute  the  superiority  of  the  white 
race  to  biological  causes;  otherwise  we  shall 
have  to  seek  an  explanation  of  white  superiority 
in  causes  lying  outside  the  brain. 

In  examining  this  question  we  need  not  dwell 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     263 

on  the  acuteness  of  the  sense-perceptions,  be- 
cause these  are  not  distinctively  human.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  they  are  usually  better  developed 
in  animals  and  in  the  lower  races  than  in  the 
civilized,  because  the  lower  mental  life  is  more 
perceptive  than  ratiocinative.  The  memory  of 
the  lower  races  is  also  apparently  quite  as  good 
as  that  of  the  higher.  The  memory  of  the  Aus- 
tralian native  or  the  Eskimo  is  quite  as  good  as 
that  of  our  "oldest  inhabitant;"  and  prob- 
ably no  one  would  claim  that  the  modern 
scientist  has  a  better  memory  than  the  bard 
of  the  Homeric  period. 

There  is,  however,  a  prevalent  view,  for  the 
popularization  of  which  Herbert  Spencer  is 
largely  responsible,  that  primitive  man  has  feeble 
powers  of  inhibition.  Like  the  equally  erro- 
neous view  that  early  man  is  a  free  and  unfettered 
creature,  it  arises  from  our  habit  of  assuming 
that,  because  his  inhibitions  and  unfreedom 
do  not  correspond  with  our  own  restraints, 
they  do  not  exist.  Sir  John  Lubbock  pointed 
out  long  ago  that  the  savage  is  hedged  about  by 
conventions  so  minute  and  so  mandatory  that 
he  is  actually  the  least  free  person  in  the  world. 
But,  in  spite  of  this,  Spencer  and  others  have 
insisted  that  he  is  incapable  of  self-restraint,  is 


264  Sex  and  Society 

carried  away  like  a  child  by  the  impulse  of  the 
moment,  and  is  incapable  of  rejecting  an  imme- 
diate gratification  for  a  greater  future  one. 
Cases  like  the  one  mentioned  by  Darwin  of  the 
Fuegian  who  struck  and  killed  his  little  son 
when  the  latter  dropped  a  basket  of  fish  into  the 
water  are  cited  without  regard  to  the  fact  that 
cases  of  sudden  domestic  violence  and  quick 
repentance  are  common  in  any  city  today;  and 
the  failure  of  the  Australian  blacks  to  throw  back 
the  small  fry  when  seining  is  referred  to  without 
pausing  to  consider  that  our  practice  of  exter- 
minating game  and  denuding  our  forests  shows 
an  amazing  lack  of  individual  seK-restraint. 

The  truth  is  that  the  restraints  exercised  in  a 
group  depend  largely  on  the  traditions,  views, 
and  teachings  of  the  group,  and,  if  we  have 
this  in  mind,  the  savage  cannot  be  called  defi- 
cient on  the  side  of  inhibition.  It  is  doubtful 
if  modern  society  affords  anything  more  striking 
in  the  way  of  inhibition  than  is  found  in  connec- 
tion with  taboo,  fetish,  totemism,  and  ceremonial 
among  the  lower  races.  In  the  great  majority 
of  the  American  Indian  and  Australian  tribes 
a  man  is  strictly  forbidden  to  kill  or  eat  the 
animals  whose  name  his  clan  bears  as  a  totem. 
The  central  Australian  may  not,  in  addition, 


The  Mind  oj  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     265 

eat  the  flesh  of  any  animal  killed  or  even  touched 
by  persons  standing  in  certain  relations  of  kin- 
ship to  him.  At  certain  times  also  he  is  for- 
bidden to  eat  the  flesh  of  a  number  of  animals 
and  at  all  times  he  must  share  afl  food  secured 
with  the  tribal  elders  and  some  others. 

A  native  of  Queensland  will  put  his  mark  on 
an  unripe  zamia  fruit,  and  may  be  sure  that  it 
will  be  untouched  and  that  when  it  is  ripe  he  has 
only  to  go  and  get  it.  The  Eskimos,  though 
starving,  will  not  molest  the  sacred  seal  basking 
before  their  huts.  Similarly  in  social  inter- 
course the  inhibitions  are  numerous.  To  some 
of  his  sisters,  blood  and  tribal,  the  Australian 
may  not  speak  at  all;  to  others  only  at  certain 
distances,  according  to  the  degree  of  kinship. 
The  west  African  fetish  acts  as  a  police,  and 
property  protected  by  it  is  safer  than  under 
civilized  laws.  Food  and  palm  wine  are  placed 
beside  the  path  with  a  piece  of  fetish  suspended 
near  by,  and  no  one  will  touch  them  without 
leaving  the  proper  payment.  The  garden  of  a 
native  may  be  a  mile  from  the  house,  unfenced, 
and  sometimes  unvisited  for  weeks  by  the  owner; 
but  it  is  immune  from  depredations  if  protected 
by  fetish.  Our  proverb  says,  *'A  hungry  belly 
has  no  ears,"  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  the 


266  Sex  and  Society 

inhibition  of  food  impulses  implies  no  small 
power  of  restraint. 

Altogether  too  much  has  been  made  of  inhibi- 
tion, anyway,  as  a  sign  of  mentality,  for  it  is  not 
even  characteristic  of  the  human  species.  The 
well-trained  dog  inhibits  in  the  presence  of  the 
most  enticing  stimulations  of  the  kitchen.  And 
it  is  also  true  that  one  race,  at  least — the  Ameri- 
can Indian — makes  inhibition  of  the  most  con- 
spicuous feature  in  its  system  of  education. 
From  the  time  the  ice  is  broken  to  give  him 
a  cold  plunge  and  begin  the  toughening  pro- 
cess on  the  day  of  his  birth,  until  he  dies  with 
out  a  groan  under  torture  the  Indian  is  schooled 
in  the  restraint  of  his  impulses.  He  does  not, 
indeed,  practice  our  identical  restraints,  because 
his  traditions  and  the  run  of  his  attention  are 
dififerent;  but  he  has  a  capacity  for  controlling 
impulse  equal  to  our  own. 

Another  serious  charge  against  the  intelli- 
gence of  the  lower  races  is  lack  of  the  power 
of  abstraction.  They  certainly  do  not  deal 
largely  in  abstraction,  and  their  languages  are 
poor  in  abstract  terms.  But  there  is  a  great 
difference  between  the  habit  of  thinking  in 
abstract  terms  and  the  ability  to  do  so. 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     267 

The  degree  to  which  abstraction  is  employed 
in  the  activities  of  a  group  depends  on  the  com- 
plexity of  the  activities  and  on  the  complexity 
of  consciousness  in  the  group.  When  science, 
philosophy,  and  logic,  and  systems  of  reckoning 
time,  space,  and  number  are  taught  in  the 
schools;  when  the  attention  is  not  so  much 
engaged  in  perceptual  as  in  deliberate  acts; 
and  when  thought  is  a  profession,  then  abstract 
modes  of  thought  are  forced  on  the  mind.  This 
does  not  argue  absence  of  the  power  of  abstrac- 
tion in  the  lower  races,  or  even  a  low  grade  of 
ability,  but  lack  of  practice.  To  one  skilled  in 
any  line  an  unpracticed  person  seems  very  stupid ; 
and  this  is  apparently  the  reason  why  travelers 
report  that  the  black  and  yellow  races  have 
feeble  powers  of  abstraction.  It  is  generally 
admitted,  however,  that  the  use  of  speech  in- 
volves the  power  of  abstraction,  so  that  all  races 
have  the  power  in  some  degree.  When  we  come 
further  to  examine  the  degree  in  which  they 
possess  it,  we  find  that  they  compare  favorably 
with  ourselves  in  any  test  which  involves  a  fair 
comparison. 

The  proverb  is  a  form  of  abstraction  practiced 
by  all  races,  and  is  perhaps  the  best  test  of  the 


268  Sex  and  Society 

natural  bent  of  the  mind  in  this  direction,  be- 
cause, like  ballad  poetry,  and  slang,  proverbial 
sayings  do  not  originate  with  the  educated  class, 
but  are  of  popular  origin.  At  the  same  time, 
proverbs  compare  favorably  with  the  mots  of 
literature,  and  many  proverbs  have,  in  fact, 
drifted  into  literature  and  become  connected 
with  the  names  of  great  writers.  Indeed,  the 
saying  that  there  is  nothing  new  under  the  sun 
applies  with  such  force  and  fidelity  to  literature 
that,  if  we  should  strip  Hesiod  and  Homer  and 
Chaucer  of  such  phrases  as  ''The  half  is  greater 
than  the  whole,"  ''  It  is  a  wise  son  that  knows  his 
own  father"  (which  Shakespeare  quotes  the 
other  end  about),  and  "To  make  a  virtue  of 
necessity,"  and  if  we  should  further  eliminate 
from  literature  the  motives  and  sentiments  also 
in  ballad  poetry  and  in  popular  thought,  little 
would  remain  but  form. 

If  we  assume,  then,  that  the  popular  mind — 
let  us  say  the  peasant  mind — in  the  white  race 
is  as  capable  of  abstraction  as  the  mind  of  the 
higher  classes,  but  not  so  specialized  in  this 
direction — and  no  one  can  doubt  this  in  view 
of  the  academic  record  of  country-bred  boys — 
the  following  comparison  of  our  proverbs  with 
those  of  the  Africans  of  the  Guinea  coast  (the 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     269 

latter  reported  by  the  late  Sir.  A.   B.   Ellis') 
is  significant: 

African.   Stone  in  the  water-hole  does  not  feel  the  cold. 

English.    Habit  is  second  nature. 

A .    One  tree  does  not  make  a  forest. 

E.    One  swallow  does  not  make  a  summer. 

A.  "I  nearly  killed  the  bird."  No  one  can  eat  nearly 
in  a  stew. 

E.   First  catch  your  hare. 

A.  Full-belly  child  says  to  hungry-belly  child,  "Keep 
good  cheer." 

E.   We  can  all  endure  the  misfortunes  of  others. 

A.    Distant  firewood  is  good  firewood. 

E.    Distance  lends  enchantment  to  the  view. 

A.   Ashes  fly  back  in  the  face  of  him  who  throws  them. 

E.    Curses  come  home  to  roost. 

A .  If  the  boy  says  he  wants  to  tie  the  water  with  a 
string,  ask  him  whether  he  means  the  water  in  the  pot 
or  the  water  in  the  lagoon. 

E.   Answer  a  fool  according  to  his  folly. 

A .    Cowries  are  men. 

E.    Money  makes  the  man . 

A .    Cocoanut  is  not  good  for  bird  to  eat. 

E.   Sour  grapes. 

A.  He  runs  away  from  the  sword  and  hides  himself 
in  the  scabbard. 

E.    Out  of  the  frying-pan  into  the  fire. 

I  The  Yoruba-speaking  Peoples  of  the  Slave  Coast  of  West 
Africa,  pp.  218  ff. 


^ 


270  Sex  and  Society 

A.  A  fool  of  Ika  and  an  idiot  of  Iluka  meet  together  to 
make  friends. 

E.   Birds  of  a  feather  flock  together. 

A.  The  ground-pig  [bandicoot]  said:  "I  do  not  feel 
so  angry  with  the  man  who  killed  me  as  with  the  man 
who  dashed  me  on  the  ground  afterward." 

E.   Adding  insult  to  injury. 

A.  Quick  loving  a  woman  means  quick  not  loving  a 
woman. 

E.   Married  in  haste  we  repent  at  leisure. 

A .  Three  elders  cannot  all  fail  to  pronounce  the  word 
ekulu  [an  antelope]:  one  may  say  ekulii,  another  ekidu, 
but  the  third  will  say  ekulu. 

E.   In  a  multitude  of  counselors  there  is  safety. 

A .    If  the  stomach  is  not  strong,  do  not  eat  cockroaches. 

E.   Milk  for  babes. 

A .  No  one  should  draw  water  from  the  spring  in  order 
to  supply  the  river. 

E.    Robbing  Peter  to  pay  Paul. 

A.  The  elephant  makes  a  dust  and  the  buffalo  makes 
a  dust,  but  the  dust  of  the  buffalo  is  lost  in  the  dust  of  the 
elephant. 

E.   Duo  cum  faciunt  idem  non  est  idem. 

A .    Ear,  hear  the  other  before  you  decide. 

E.   Audi  alteram  partem. 

On  the  side  of  number  we  have  another  test 
of  the  power  of  abstraction ;  and  while  the  lower 
races  show  lack  of  practice  in  this,  they  show  no 
lack  of  power.     It  is  true  that  tribes  have  been 


The  Mind  oj  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     271 

found  with  no  names  for  numbers  beyond  two, 
three,  or  five ;  but  these  are  isolated  groups,  Hke 
the  Veddahs  and  Bushmen,  who  have  no  trade 
or  commerce,  and  lead  a  miserable  existence, 
with  little  or  nothing  to  count.  The  directions 
of  attention  and  the  simplicity  or  complexity  of 
mental  processes  depend  on  the  character  of  the 
external  situation  which  the  mind  has  to  manipu- 
late. If  the  activities  are  simple,  the  mind  is 
simple,  and  if  the  activities  were  nil,  the  mind 
would  be  nil.  The  mind  is  nothing  but  a  means 
of  manipulating  the  outside  world.  Number, 
time,  and  space  conceptions  and  systems  become 
more  complex  and  accurate,  not  as  the  human 
mind  grows  in  capacity,  but  as  activities  become 
more  varied  and  call  for  more  extended  and 
accurate  systems  of  notation  and  measurement. 
Trade  and  commerce,  machinery  and  manufac- 
ture, and  all  the  processes  of  civilization  involve 
specialization  in  the  apprehension  of  series  as 
such.  Under  these  conditions  the  number 
technique  becomes  elaborate  and  requires  time 
and  instruction  for  its  mastery.  The  advance 
which  mathematics  has  made  within  a  brief  his- 
torical time  is  strikingly  illustrated  by  the  words 
with  which  the  celebrated  mathematician,  Sir 


272  Sex  and  Society 

Henry  Savile,  who    died    in   1662,   closed   his 
career  as  a  professor  at  Oxford : 

By  the  grace  of  God,  gentlemen  hearers,  I  have  per- 
formed my  promise.  I  have  redeemed  my  pledge.  I 
have  explained,  according  to  my  abihty,  the  definitions, 
postulates,  axioms,  and  the  first  eight  propositions  of  the 
Elements  of  Euclid.  Here,  sinking  under  the  weight  of 
years,  I  lay  down  my  art  and  my  instruments.^ 

From  the  standpoint  of  modern  mathematics, 
Sir  Henry  Savile  and  the  Bushman  are  both 
woefully  backward ;  and  in  both  cases  the  back- 
wardness is  not  a  matter  of  mental  incapacity, 
but  of  the  state  of  the  science. 

In  respect,  then,  to  brain  structure  and  the 
more  important  mental  faculties  we  find  that  no 
race  is  radically  unlike  the  others.  Still,  it 
might  happen  that  the  mental  activities  and 
products  of  two  groups  were  so  different  as  to 
place  them  in  different  classes.  But  precisely 
the  contrary  is  true.  There  is  in  force  a  prin- 
ciple called  the  law  of  parallelism  in  develop- 
ment, according  to  which  any  group  takes  much 
the  same  steps  in  development  as  any  other. 
The  group  may  be  belated,  indeed,  and  not 
reach  certain  stages,  but  the  ground  patterns  of 
life  are  the  same  in  the  lower  races  and  in  the 

I  Whewell,  History  oj  the  Inductive  Sciences,  Vol.  I,  p.  205 . 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     273 

higher.  Mechanical  inventions,  textile  indus- 
tries, rude  painting,  poetry,  sculpture,  and  song, 
marriage  and  family  life,  organization  under 
leaders,  belief  in  spirits,  a  mythology,  and  some 
form  of  church  and  state  exist  universally.  At 
one  time  students  of  mankind,  when  they  found 
a  myth  in  Hawaii  corresponding  to  the  Greek 
story  of  Orpheus  and  Eurydice,  or  an  Aztec 
poem  of  tender  longing  in  absence,  or  a  story  of 
the  deluge,  were  wont  to  conjecture  how  these 
could  have  been  carried  over  from  Greek  or 
Elizabethan  or  Hebraic  sources,  or  whether  they 
did  not  afford  evidence  of  a  time  when  all 
branches  of  the  human  race  dwelt  together  with 
a  common  fund  of  sentiment  and  tradition. 
But  this  standpoint  has  been  abandoned,  and  it 
is  recognized  that  the  human  mind  and  the  out- 
side world  are  essentially  alike  the  world  over; 
that  the  mind  everywhere  acts  on  the  same  prin- 
ciples; and  that,  ignoring  the  local,  incidental, 
and  eccentric,  we  find  similar  laws  of  growth 
among  all  peoples. 

The  number  of  things  which  can  stimulate 
the  human  mind  is  somewhat  definite  and 
limited.  Among  them,  for  example,  is  death. 
This  happens  everywhere,  and  the  death  of  a 
dear  one  may  cause  the  living  to  imagine  ways  of 


2  74  Sex  and  Society 

being  reunited.  The  story  of  Orpheus  and 
Eurydice  may  thus  arise  spontaneously  and  per- 
petually, wherever  death  and  affection  exist. 
Or,  there  may  be  a  separation  from  home  and 
friends,  and  the  mind  runs  back  in  distress  and 
longing  over  the  happy  past,  and  the  state  of 
consciousness  aroused  is  as  definite  a  fact  among 
savages  as  among  the  civilized.  A  beautiful 
passage  in  Homer  represents  Helen  looking  out 
on  the  Greeks  from  the  wall  of  Troy  and 
saying : 

And  now  behold  I  all  the  other  glancing-eyed  Achaians, 
whom  well  I  could  discern  and  tell  their  names;  but  two 
captains  of  the  host  can  I  not  see,  even  Kastor  tamer  of 
horses  and  Polydukes  the  skilful  boxer,  mine  own  brethren 
whom  the  same  mother  bare.  Either  they  came  not  in 
the  company  from  lovely  Lakedaimon;  or  they  came 
hither  indeed  in  their  seafaring  ships,  but  now  will  not 
enter  into  the  battle  of  the  warriors,  for  fear  of  the  many 
scornings  and  revilings  that  are  mine.' 

When  this  passage  is  thus  stripped  of  its  tech- 
nical excellence  by  a  prose  translation,  we  may 
compare  it  with  the  following  New  Zealand 
lament  composed  by  a  young  woman  who  was 
captured  on  the  island  of  Tuhua  and  carried 
to  a  mountain  from  which  she  could  see  her 
home: 

I  Homer,  Iliad,  iii,  233;  translation  by  Lang,  Leaf,  and  Myers. 


The  Mind  oj  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     275 

My  regret  is  not  to  be  expressed.  Tears,  like  a  spring, 
gush  from  my  eyes.  I  wonder  whatever  is  Tu  Kainku 
[her  lover]  doing,  he  who  deserted  me.  Now  I  climb 
upon  the  ridge  of  Mount  Parahaki,  whence  is  clear  the 
view  of  the  island  of  Tuhua.  I  see  with  regret  the  lofty 
Tanmo  where  dwells  [the  chief]  Tangiteruru.  If  I  were 
there,  the  shark's  tooth  would  hang  from  my  ear.  How 
fine,  how  beautiful  should  I  look!  ....  But  enough 
of  this;  I  must  return  to  my  rags  and  to  my  nothing  at  all.' 

The  situation  of  the  two  women  in  this  case 
is  not  identical,  and  it  would  be  possible  to  claim 
that  the  Greek  and  Maori  passages  differ  in  tone 
and  coloring;  but  it  remains  true  that  a  captive 
woman  of  any  race  will  feel  much  the  same  as  a 
captive  woman  of  any  other  race  when  her 
thoughts  turn  toward  home,  and  that  the  poetry 
growing  out  of  such  a  situation  will  be  every- 
where of  the  same  general  pattern. 

Similarly,  to  take  an  illustration  from  morals, 
we  find  that  widely  different  in  complexion  and 
detail  as  are  the  moral  codes  of  lower  and  higher 
groups,  say  the  Hebrews  and  the  African  Kafirs, 
yet  the  general  patterns  of  morality  are  strik- 
ingly coincident.  It  is  reported  of  the  Kafirs 
that  "they  possess  laws  which  meet  every  crime 
which  may  be  committed."  Theft  is  punished 
by  restitution  and  fine;  injuring  cattle,  by  death 

I  Thomson,  New  Zealand,  Vol.  I,  p.  164. 


276  Sex  and  Society 

or  fine ;  false  witness,  by  a  heavy  fine ;  adultery, 
by  fine  or  death ;  rape,  by  fine  or  death ;  poison- 
ing or  witchcraft,  by  death  and  confiscation  of 
property;  murder,  by  death  or  fine;  treason  or 
desertion  from  the  tribe,  by  death  or  confisca- 
tion. '  The  Kafirs  and  Hebrews  are  not  at  the 
same  level  of  culture,  and  we  miss  the  more 
abstract  and  monotheistic  admonitions  of  the 
higher  religion — "thou  shalt  not  covet;  thou 
shalt  worship  no  other  gods  before  me" — but 
the  intelligence  shown  by  the  social  mind  in 
adjusting  the  individual  to  society  may  fairly  be 
called  the  same  grade  of  intelligence  in  the  two 
cases. 

When  the  environmental  life  of  two  groups  is 
more  alike  and  the  general  cultural  conditions 
more  correspondent,  the  parallelism  of  thought 
and  practice  becomes  more  striking.  The  re- 
cently discovered  Assyrian  Code  of  Hammurabi 
(about  2500  B.  c.)  contains  striking  correspond- 
ences with  the  Mosaic  code;  and  while  Semitic 
scholars  probably  have  good  and  sufficient 
reasons  for  holding  that  the  Mosaic  Code  was 
strongly  influenced  by  the  Assyrian,  we  may  yet 
be  very  confident  that  the  two  codes  would  have 

I  Shooter,  The  Kafirs  of  Natal  and  the  Zulu  Country,  p.  102. 


The  Mind  oj  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     277 

been  of  the  same  general  character  if  no  influ- 
ence whatever  had  passed  from  one  to  the  other. 

The  institutions  and  practices  of  a  people  are 
a  product  of  the  mind ;  and  if  the  early  and  spon- 
taneous products  of  mind  are  everywhere  of  the 
same  general  pattern  as  the  later  manifestations, 
only  less  developed,  refined,  and  specialized,  it 
may  well  be  that  failure  to  progress  equally  is 
not  due  to  essential  unlikeness  of  mind,  but  to 
conditions  lying  outside  the  mind. 

Another  test  of  mental  ability  which  deserves 
special  notice  is  mechanical  ingenuity.  Our 
white  pre-eminence  owes  much  to  this  faculty, 
and  the  lower  races  are  reckoned  defective  in  it. 
But  the  lower  races  do  invent,  and  it  is  doubtful 
whether  one  invention  is  ever  much  more  diffi- 
cult than  another.  On  the  psychological  side, 
an  invention  means  that  the  mind  sees  a  round- 
about way  of  reaching  an  end  when  it  cannot  be 
reached  directly.  It  brings  into  play  the  asso- 
ciative memory,  and  involves  the  recognition  of 
analogies.  There  is  a  certain  likeness  between 
the  flying  back  of  a  bough  in  one's  face  and  the 
rebound  of  a  bow,  between  a  serpent's  tooth  and 
a  poisoned  arrow,  between  floating  timber  and  a 
raft  or  boat;   and  water,  steam,  and  electricity 


278  Sex  and  Society 

are  like  a  horse  in  one  respect — they  will  all 
make  wheels  go  around,  and  do  work. 

Now,  the  savage  had  this  faculty  of  seeing 
analogies  and  doing  things  in  indirect  ways. 
With  the  club,  knife,  and  sword  he  struck  more 
effectively  than  with  the  fist;  with  hooks,  traps, 
nets,  and  pitfalls  he  understood  how  to  seize 
game  more  surely  than  with  the  hands;  in  the 
bow  and  arrow,  spear,  blow-gun,  and  spring- 
trap  he  devised  motion  swifter  than  that  of  his 
own  body;  he  protected  himself  with  armor 
imitated  from  the  hides  and  scales  of  animals, 
and  turned  their  venom  back  on  themselves. 
That  the  savage  should  have  originated  the 
inventive  process  and  carried  it  on  systematically 
is,  indeed,  more  wonderful  than  that  his  civilized 
successors  should  continue  the  process;  for 
every  beginning  is  difficult. 

When  occupations  become  specialized  and 
one  set  of  men  has  continually  to  do  with  one 
and  only  one  set  of  machinery  and  forces,  the 
constant  play  of  attention  over  the  limited  field 
naturally  results  in  improvements  and  the  intro- 
duction of  new  principles.  Modern  inventions 
are  magnificent  and  seem  quite  to  overshadow 
the  simpler  devices  of  primitive  times ;  but  when 
we  consider  the  precedents,  copies,  resources, 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     2  79 

and  accumulated  knowledge  with  which  the 
modern  investigator  works,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  resourcelessness  of  primitive  man  in 
materials,  ideas,  and  in  the  inventive  habit 
itself,  I  confess  that  the  bow  and  arrow  seems  to 
me  the  most  wonderful  invention  in  the  world. 

Viewing  the  question  from  a  different  angle, 
we  find  another  argument  for  the  homogeneous 
character  of  the  human  mind  in  the  fact  that 
the  patterns  of  interest  of  the  civilized  show  no 
variation  from  those  of  the  savage.  Not  only 
the  appetites  and  vanities  remain  essentially 
the  same,  but,  on  the  side  of  intellectual  interest, 
the  type  of  mental  reaction  fixed  in  the  savage 
by  the  food-quest  has  come  down  unaltered  to 
the  man  of  science  as  well  as  to  the  man  of  the 
street.  In  circumventing  enemies  and  capturing 
game,  both  the  attention  and  the  organic  pro- 
cesses worked  together  in  primitive  man  under 
great  stress  and  strain.  Whenever,  indeed,  a 
strain  is  thrown  on  the  attention,  the  heart  and 
organs  of  respiration  are  put  under  pressure 
also  in  their  effort  to  assist  the  attention  in  man- 
ipulating the  problem;  and  these  organic 
fluctuations  are  felt  as  pleasure  and  pain.  The 
strains  thrown  on  the  attention  of  primitive  man 
were  connected  with  his  struggle  for  life ;  and  not 


28o  Sex  and  Society 

only  in  the  actual  encounter  with  men  and  ani- 
mals did  emotion  run  high,  but  the  memory  and 
anticipation  of  conflict  reinstated  the  emotional 
conditions  in  those  periods  when  he  was  meditat- 
ing future  conflicts  and  preparing  his  bows  and 
arrows,  traps  and  poisons.  The  problem  of 
invention,  the  reflective  and  scientific  side  of 
his  life,  was  suffused  with  interest,  because  the 
manufacture  of  the  weapon  was,  psychologically 
speaking,  a  part  of  the  fight. 

This  type  of  interest,  originating  in  the  hunt, 
remains  dominant  in  the  mind  down  to  the  pres- 
ent time.  Once  constructed  to  take  an  inter- 
est in  the  hunting  problem,  it  takes  an  interest 
in  any  problem  whatever.  Not  only  do  hunting 
and  fighting  and  all  competitive  games — which 
are  of  precisely  the  same  psychological  pattern 
as  the  hunt  and  fight — remain  of  perennial  inter- 
est, but  all  the  useful  occupations  are  interesting 
in  just  the  degree  that  this  pattern  is  preserved. 
The  man  of  science  works  at  problems  and  uses 
his  ingenuity  in  making  an  engine  in  the  labora- 
tory in  the  same  way  that  primitive  man  used 
his  mind  in  making  a  trap.  So  long  as  the  prob- 
lem is  present,  the  interest  is  sustained;  and 
the  interest  ceases  when  the  problematical  is 
removed.     Consequently,   all   modern   occupa- 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     281 

tions  of  the  hunting  pattern — scientific  investiga- 
tion, law,  medicine,  the  organization  of  business, 
trade  speculation,  and  the  arts  and  crafts — are 
interesting  as  a  game;  while  those  occupations 
into  which  the  division  of  labor  enters  to  the 
degree  that  the  workman  is  not  attempting  to 
control  a  problem,  and  in  which  the  same  acts 
are  repeated  an  indefinite  number  of  times,  lose 
interest  and  become  extremely  irksome. 

This  means  that  the  brain  acts  pleasurably  on 
the  principle  it  was  made  up  to  act  on  in  the 
most  primitive  times,  and  the  rest  is  a  burden. 
There  is  no  brain  change,  but  the  social  changes 
have  been  momentous;  and  the  brain  of  each 
generation  is  brought  into  contact  with  new 
traditions,  inhibitions,  copies,  obligations,  prob- 
lems, so  that  the  run  of  attention  and  content  of 
consciousness  are  different.  Social  suggestion 
works  marvels  in  the  manipulation  of  the  mind ; 
but  the  change  is  not  in  the  brain  as  an  organ; 
it  is  rather  in  the  character  of  the  stimulations 
thrust  on  it  by  society. 

The  child  begins  as  a  savage,  and  after  we 
have  brought  to  bear  all  the  influence  of  home, 
school,  and  church  to  socialize  him,  we  speak  as 
though  his  nature  had  changed  organically,  and 
institute  a  parallelism  between  the  child  and 


282  Sex  and  Society 

the  race,  assuming  that  the  child's  brain  passes 
in  a  recapitulatory  way  through  phases  of  devel- 
opment corresponding  to  epochs  in  the  history 
of  the  race.  I  have  no  doubt  myself  that  this 
theory  of  recapitulation  is  largely  a  misappre- 
hension. A  stream  of  social  influence  is  turned 
loose  on  the  child ;  and  if  the  attention  to  him  is 
incessant  and  wise,  and  the  copies  he  has  are 
good  and  stimulating,  he  is  molded  nearer  to  the 
heart's  desire.  Sometimes  he  escapes,  and  be- 
comes a  criminal,  tramp,  sport,  or  artist;  and 
even  if  made  into  an  impeccable  and  model 
citizen,  he  periodically  breaks  away  from  the 
network  of  social  habit  and  goes  a-fishing. 

The  fundamental  explanation  of  the  differ- 
ence in  the  mental  life  of  two  groups  is  not  that 
the  capacity  of  the  brain  to  do  work  is  different, 
but  that  the  attention  is  not  in  the  two  cases 
stimulated  and  engaged  along  the  same  lines. 
Wherever  society  furnishes  copies  and  stimula- 
tions of  a  certain  kind,  a  body  of  knowledge 
and  a  technique,  practically  all  its  members  are 
able  to  work  on  the  plan  and  scale  in  vogue 
there,  and  members  of  an  alien  race  who  become 
acquainted  in  a  real  sense  with  the  system  can 
work  under  it.  But  when  society  does  not 
furnish  the  stimulations,  or  when  it  has  pre- 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     283 

conceptions  which  tend  to  inhibit  the  run  of 
attention  in  given  lines,  then  the  individual 
shows  no  intelligence  in  these  lines.  This  may 
be  illustrated  in  the  fields  of  scientific  and  artistic 
interest.  Among  the  Hebrews  a  religious  inhibi- 
tion— "thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee  any 
graven  image" — was  sufficient  to  prevent  any- 
thing like  the  sculpture  of  the  Greeks;  and  the 
doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body  in  the 
early  Christian  church,  and  the  teaching  that 
man  was  made  in  the  image  of  God,  formed  an 
almost  insuperable  obstacle  to  the  study  of 
human  anatomy. 

The  Mohammedan  attitude  toward  scientific 
interest  is  represented  by  the  following  extracts 
from  a  letter  from  an  oriental  official  to  a  western 
inquirer,  printed  by  Sir  Austen  Henry  Layard : 

My  Illustrious  Friend  and  Joy  oj  my  Liver: 

The  thing  which  you  ask  of  me  is  both  difficult  and 
useless.  Although  I  have  passed  all  my  da)'s  in  this  place, 
I  have  neither  counted  the  houses  nor  inquired  into  the 
number  of  the  inhabitants;  and  as  to  what  one  person 
loads  on  his  mules  and  the  other  stows  away  in  the  bottom 
of  his  ship,  that  is  no  business  of  mine.  But  above  all,  as 
to  the  previous  history  of  this  city,  God  only  knows  the 
amount  of  dirt  and  confusion  that  the  infidels  may  have 
eaten  before  the  coming  of  the  sword  of  Islam.  It  were 
unprofitable  for  us  to  inquire  into  it Listen,  O 


284  Sex  and  Society 

my  son !  There  is  no  wisdom  equal  to  the  belief  in  God ! 
He  created  the  world,  and  shall  we  liken  ourselves  unto 
him  in  seeking  to  penetrate  into  the  mysteries  of  his 
creation  ?  Shall  we  say,  Behold  this  star  spinneth  round 
that  star,  and  this  other  star  with  a  tail  goeth  and  cometh 
in  so  many  years  ?     Let  it  go !     He  from  whose  hand  it 

came  will  guide  and  direct  it Thou  art  learned 

in  the  things  I  care  not  for,  and  as  for  that  which  thou 
hast  seen,  I  spit  upon  it.  Will  much  knowledge  create 
thee  a  double  belly,  or  wilt  thou  seek  paradise  with  thine 
eyes  ?  .  .  .  . 

The  meek  in  spirit, 

Imaum  Ali  Zadi.' 

The  works  of  Sir  Henry  Maine,  who  gained 
by  his  long  residence  in  India  a  profound  insight 
into  the  oriental  character,  frequently  point  out 
that  the  eastern  pride  in  conservatisms  is  quite 
as  real  as  the  western  pride  in  progress : 

Vast  populations,  some  of  them  with  a  civilization 
considerable  but  peculiar,  detest  that  which  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  West  would  be  called  reform.  The  entire 
Mohammedan  world  detests  it.  The  multitudes  of 
colored  men  who  swarm  in  the  great  continent  of  Africa 
detest  it,  and  it  is  detested  by  that  large  part  of  mankind 
which  we  are  accustomed  to  leave  on  one  side  as  barbar- 
ous or  savage.  The  millions  upon  millions  of  men  who 
fill  the  Chinese  Empire  loathe  it  and  (what  is  more) 
despise  it There  are  few  things  more  remarkable, 

I  Fresh  Discoveries  at  Nineveh  and  Researcltes  at  Babylon: 
Supplement. 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     285 

and  in  their  way  more  instructive,  than  the  stubborn 
incredulity  and  disdain  which  a  man  belonging  to  the 
cultivated  part  of  Chinese  society  opposes  to  the  vaunts 

of  western  civilization  which  he  frequently  hears 

There  is  in  India  a  minority,  educated  at  the  feet  of  Eng- 
lish politicians  and  in  books  saturated  with  English  politi- 
cal ideas,  which  has  learned  to  repeat  their  language;  but 
it  is  doubtful  whether  even  these,  if  they  had  a  voice  in 
the  matter,  would  allow  a  finger  to  be  laid  on  the  very 
subjects  with  which  European  legislation  is  beginning 
to  concern  itself — social  and  religious  usage.  There  is 
not,  however,  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  that  the  enormous 
mass  of  the  Indian  population  hates  and  dreads  change.'' 
To  the  fact  that  the  enthusiasm  for  change  is  compara- 
tively rare  must  be  added  the  fact  that  it  is  extremely 
modern.  It  is  known  but  to  a  small  part  of  mankind, 
and  to  that  part  but  for  a  short  period  during  a  history 
of  incalculable  length.^ 

The  oriental  attitude  does  not  argue  a  lack  of 
brain  power,  but  a  prepossession  hostile  to 
scientific  inquiry.  The  society  represented  does 
not  interest  its  members  in  what,  from  the  west- 
ern standpoint,  is  knowledge. 

The  Chinese  afford  a  fine  example  of  a 
people  of  great  natural  ability  letting  their 
intelligence  run  to  waste  from  lack  of  a  scientific 
standpoint.     As  indicated  above,  they  are  not 

I  Maine,  Popular  Government,  p.  132. 
^Ibid.,  p.  134. 


286  Sex  and  Society 

defective  in  brain  weight,  and  their  appHcation  to 
study  is  long  continued  and  very  severe;  but 
their  attention  is  directed  to  matters  which  can- 
not possibly  make  them  wise  from  the  occidental 
standpoint.  They  learn  no  mathematics  and  no 
science,  but  spend  years  in  copying  the  poetry  of 
the  T'ang  Dynasty,  in  order  to  learn  the  Chinese 
characters,  and  in  the  end  cannot  write  the  lan- 
guage correctly,  because  many  modern  char- 
acters are  not  represented  in  this  ancient  poetry. 
Their  attention  to  Chinese  history  is  great,  as 
befits  their  reverence  for  the  past ;  but  they  do  not 
organize  their  knowledge,  they  have  no  adequate 
textbooks  or  apparatus  for  study,  and  they  make 
no  clear  distinction  between  fact  and  fiction.  In 
general,  they  learn  only  rules  and  no  principles, 
and  rely  on  memory  without  the  aid  of  reason, 
with  the  result  that  the  man  who  stops  studying 
often  forgets  everything,  and  the  professional 
student  is  amazingly  ignorant  in  the  line  of  his 
own  work: 

Multitudes  of  Chinese  scholars  know  next  to  nothing 
about  matters  directly  in  the  line  of  their  studies,  and  in 
regard  to  which  we  should  consider  ignorance  positively 
disgraceful.  A  venerable  teacher  remarked  to  the  writer 
with  a  charming  naivetd  that  he  had  never  understood 
the  allusions  in  the  Trimetrical  Classic  (which  stands 
at  the  very  threshold  of  Chinese  study)  until  at  the  age 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     287 

of  sixty  he  had  an  opportunity  to  read  a  Universal  History 
prepared  by  a  missionary,  in  which  for  the  first  time 
Chinese  history  was  made  accessible  to  him.^ 

Add  to  this  that  the  whole  of  their  higher 
learning,  corresponding  to  our  university  system, 
consists  in  writing  essays  and  always  more  essays 
on  the  Chinese  classics,  and  "it  is  impossible," 
as  Mr.  Smith  points  out,  "not  to  marvel  at  the 
measure  of  success  which  has  attended  the  use  of 
such  materials  in  China.""  But  when  this  people 
is  in  possession  of  the  technique  of  the  western 
world — a  logic,  general  ideas,  and  experi- 
mentation— we  cannot  reasonably  doubt  that 
they  will  be  able  to  work  the  western  system  as 
their  cousins,  the  Japanese,  are  doing,  and  per- 
haps they,  too,  may  better  the  instruction. 

White  effectiveness  is  probably  due  to  a  superi- 
or technique  acting  in  connection  with  a  superior 
body  of  knowledge  and  sentiment.  Of  two 
groups  having  equal  mental  endowment,  one  may 
outstrip  the  other  by  the  mere  dominance  of 
incident.  It  is  a  notorious  fact  that  the  course 
of  human  history  has  been  largely  without  pre- 
vision or  direction.  Things  have  drifted  and 
forces  have  arisen.     Under  these  conditions  an 

»  Smith,  Village  Life  in  China,  p.  99. 
a  Ibid.,  p.  95, 


288  Sex  and  Society 

unusual  incicjent — the  emergence  of  a  great 
mind  or  a  forcible  personality,  or  the  operation 
of  influences  as  subtle  as  those  which  determine 
fashions  in  dress — may  establish  social  habits 
and  duties  which  will  give  a  distinct  character 
to  the  modes  of  attention  and  mental  life  of  the 
group.  The  most  significant  fact  for  Aryan 
development  is  the  emergence  among  the  Greeks 
of  a  number  of  eminent  men  who  developed 
logic,  the  experimental  method,  and  philosophic 
interest,  and  fixed  in  their  group  the  habit  of 
looking  behind  the  incident  for  the  general  law. 
Mediaeval  attention  was  diverted  from  these 
lines  by  a  religious  movement,  and  the  race  lost 
for  a  time  the  key  to  progress  and  got  clean  away 
from  the  Greek  copies ;  but  it  found  them  again 
and  took  a  fresh  start  with  the  revival  of  Greek 
learning.  It  is  quite  possible  to  make  a  fetish 
of  classical  learning;  but  Sir  Henry  Maine's 
remark,  that  nothing  moves  in  the  modern 
world  that  is  not  Greek  in  its  origin,  is  quite  just. 
The  real  variable  is  the  individual,  not  the 
race.  In  the  beginning — perhaps  as  the  result 
of  a  mutation  or  series  of  mutations — a  type  of 
brain  developed  which  has  remained  relatively 
fixed  in  all  times  and  among  all  races.  This 
brain  will  never  have  any  faculty  in  addition  to 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     289 

what  it  now  possesses,  because  gs  a  type  of 
structure  it  is  as  fixed  as  the  species  itself,  and  is 
indeed  a  mark  of  species.  It  is  not  apparent 
either  that  we  are  greatly  in  need  of  another 
faculty,  or  that  we  could  make  use  of  it  even  if 
by  a  chance  mutation  it  should  emerge,  since 
with  the  power  of  abstraction  we  are  able  to  do 
any  class  of  work  we  know  anything  about. 
Moreover,  the  brain  is  less  likely  to  make  a  leap 
now  than  in  earlier  time,  both  because  the  condi- 
tions of  nature  are  more  fixed  or  more  nearly 
controlled  by  man,  and  hence  the  urgency  of 
adjustment  to  sharp  variations  in  external  condi- 
tions is  removed,  and  because  the  struggle  for 
existence  has  been  mitigated  so  that  the  unfit  sur- 
vive along  with  the  fit.  Indeed,  the  rapid 
increase  in  idiocy  and  insanity  shown  by  statis- 
tics indicates  that  the  brain  is  deteriorating 
slightly,  on  the  average,  as  compared  with  earlier 
times. ' 

Nature  is  not  producing  a  better  average  brain 
than  in  the  time  of  Aristotle  and  the  Greeks. 
If  we  have  more  than  the  wisdom  of  our  ances- 
tors, our  advantage  lies  in  our  specialization, 

I  On  the  increase  of  insanity  and  feeble-mindedness  see 
R.  R.  Rentoul,  "Proposed  Sterilization  of  Certain  Mental  Degen- 
erates," American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  XII,  pp.  319  ff. 


290  Sex  and  Society 

our  superior  Ijody  of  knowledge,  and  our  superior 
technique  for  its  transmission.  At  the  same 
time,  the  individual  brain  is  unstable,  fluctuating 
in  normal  persons  between  1,100  and  1,500 
grams  in  weight,  while  the  extremes  of  variation 
are  represented,  on  the  one  side,  by  the  imbecile 
with  300  grams,  and  the  man  of  genius  with 
2,000  on  the  other.  It  is  therefore  perfectly 
true  that  by  artificial  selection — Mr.  Galton's 
"eugenism" — a  larger  average  brain  could  be 
created,  and  also  a  higher  average  of  natural 
intelligence,  whether  this  be  absolutely  depend- 
ent on  brain  weight  or  not.  But  it  is  hardly 
to  be  expected  that  a  stable  brain  above  the  capa- 
city of  those  of  the  first  rank  now  and  in  the  past 
will  result,  since  the  mutations  of  nature  are 
more  radical  than  the  breeding  process  of  man, 
and  she  probably  ran  the  whole  gamut.  "  Great 
men  lived  before  Agamenmon,"  and  individual 
variations  will  continue  to  occur,  but  not  on  a 
different  pattern ;  and  what  has  been  true  in  the 
past  will  happen  again  in  the  future,  that  the 
group  which  by  hook  or  by  crook  comes  into 
possession  of  the  best  technique  and  the  best 
copies  will  make  the  best  show  of  intelligence 
and  march  at  the  head  of  civilization. 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     291 

III 

The  foregoing  examination  of  the  relation 
of  the  mental  faculty  of  the  lower  races  to  the 
higher  places  us  in  a  position  to  examine  to  better 
advantage  the  other  question  of  the  relation  of 
the  intelligence  of  woman  to  that  of  man. 

The  differences  in  mental  expression  between 
the  lower  and  the  higher  races  can  be  expressed 
for  the  most  part  in  terms  of  attention  and  prac- 
tice. The  differences  in  run  of  attention  and 
practice  are  in  this  case  due  to  the  development 
of  different  habits  by  groups  occupying  different 
habitats,  and  consequently  having  no  copies  in 
common.  Woman,  on  the  other  hand,  exists 
in  the  white  man's  world  of  practical  and  scien- 
tific activity,  but  is  excluded  from  full  partici- 
pation in  it.  Certain  organic  conditions  and 
historical  incidents  have,  in  fact,  inclosed  her  in 
habits  which  she  neither  can  nor  will  fracture, 
and  have  also  set  up  in  the  mind  of  man  an 
attitude  toward  her  which  renders  her  almost 
as  alien  to  man's  interests  and  practices  as  if 
she  were  spatially  separated  from  them. 

One  of  the  most  important  facts  which  stand 
out  in  a  comparison  of  the  physical  traits  of  men 
and  women  is  that  man  is  a  more  specialized 


292  Sex  and  Society 

instrument  for  motion,  quicker  on  his  feet,  with 
a  longer  reach,  and  fitted  for  bursts  of  energy; 
while  woman  has  a  greater  fund  of  stored  energy 
and  is  consequently  more  fitted  for  endurance. 
The  development  of  intelligence  and  motion 
have  gone  along  side  by  side  in  all  animal  forms. 
Through  motion  chances  and  experiences  are 
multiplied,  the  whole  equilibrium  characterizing 
the  stationary  form  is  upset,  and  the  organs  of 
sense  and  the  intelligence  are  developed  to  take 
note  of  and  manipulate  the  outside  world. 
Amid  the  recurrent  dangers  incident  to  a  world 
peopled  with  moving  and  predacious  forms,  two 
attitudes  may  be  assumed — that  of  fighting,  and 
that  of  fleeing  or  hiding.  As  between  the  two, 
concealment  and  evasion  became  more  char- 
acteristic of  the  female,  especially  among  mam- 
mals, where  the  young  are  particularly  helpless 
and  need  protection  for  a  long  period.  She 
remained,  therefore,  more  stationary,  and  at  the 
same  time  acquired  more  cunning,  than  the  male. 
In  mankind  especially,  the  fact  that  woman 
had  to  rely  on  cunning  and  the  protection  of  man 
rather  than  on  swift  motion,  while  man  had  a 
freer  range  of  motion  and  adopted  a  fighting 
technique,  was  the  starting-point  of  a  differ- 
entiation in  the  habits  and  interests,  which  had 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     293 

a  profound  effect  on  the  consciousness  of  each. 
Man's  most  immediate,  most  fascinating,  and 
most  remunerative  occupation  was  the  pursuit 
of  animal  life.  The  pursuit  of  this  stimulated 
him  to  the  invention  of  devices  for  killing  and 
capture;  and  this  aptitude  for  invention  was 
later  extended  to  the  invention  of  tools  and 
of  mechanical  devices  in  general,  and  finally 
developed  into  a  settled  habit  of  scientific  inter- 
est. The  scientific  imagination  which  character- 
izes man  in  contrast  with  women  is  not  a  dis- 
tinctive male  trait,  but  represents  a  constructive 
habit  of  attention  associated  with  freer  move- 
ment and  the  pursuit  of  evasive  animal  forms. 
The  problem  of  control  was  more  difficult,  and 
the  means  of  securing  it  became  more  indirect, 
mediated,  reflective,  and  inventive;  that  is,  more 
intelligent. 

Woman's  activities,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
largely  limited  to  plant  life,  to  her  children, 
and  to  manufacture,  and  the  stimulation  to 
mental  life  and  invention  in  connection  with 
these  was  not  so  powerful  as  in  the  case  of  man. 
Her  inventions  were  largely  processes  of  manu- 
facture connected  with  her  handling  of  the  by- 
products of  the  chase.  So  simple  a  matter, 
therefore,  as  relatively  unrestricted  motion  on 


294  Sex  and  Society 

the  part  of  man  and  relatively  restricted  motion 
on  the  part  of  woman  determined  the  occupa- 
tions of  each,  and  these  occupations  in  turn 
created  the  characteristic  mental  life  of  each. 
In  man  this  was  constructive,  answering  to  his 
varied  experience  and  the  need  of  controlling  a 
moving  environment ;  and  in  woman  it  was  con- 
servative, answering  to  her  more  stationary  and 
monotonous  condition. 

In  early  times  man's  superior  physical  force, 
the  wider  range  of  his  experience,  his  mechanical 
inventions  in  connection  with  hunting  and  fight- 
ing, and  his  combination  under  leadership  with 
his  comrades  to  carry  out  their  common  enter- 
prises, resulted  in  a  contempt  for  the  weakness 
of  women  and  an  almost  complete  separation  in 
interest  between  himself  and  the  women  of  the 
group.  The  men  frequently  formed  clubs,  and 
lived  apart  from  the  women;  and  even  where 
this  did  not  happen,  the  men  and  women  had  no 
mental  life  in  common.  To  this  contempt  for 
women  also  was  added  a  superstitious  fear  of 
them,  growing  out  of  the  primitive  belief  that 
weakness  or  any  other  bad  quality  is  infectious, 
and  may  be  transferred  by  physical  contact  or 
association.  * 

«  It  is  true  that  in  many  parts  of  the  world,  among  the  lower 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     295 

From  Mr.  Crawley's  excellent  paper  on  "Sex- 
ual Taboo"  I  transcribe  the  following  illustra- 
tions of  this  attitude : 

In  New  Caledonia  you  rarely  see  men  and  women 
talking  or  sitting  together.  The  women  seem  perfectly 
content  with  the  company  of  their  own  sex.  The  men 
who  loiter  about  with  spears  in  most  lazy  fashion  are 

seldom  seen  in  the  society  of  the  opposite  sex The 

Ojebwey,  Peter  Jones,  thus  writes  of  his  own  people:  "I 
have  scarcely  ever  seen  anything  like  social  intercourse 
between  husband  and  wife,  and  it  is  remarkable  that  the 
women  say  little  in  the  presence  of  the  men."  The 
Zulus  regard  their  women  with  a  haughty  contempt. 
If  a  man  were  going  to  the  bush  to  cut  firewood  with  his 
wives,  he  and  they  would  take  different  paths,  and  neither 
go  nor  return  in  company.  If  he  were  going  to  visit  a 
neighbor  and  wished  his  wife  to  go  also,  she  would  follow 
at  a  distance.  In  Senegambia  the  women  live  by  them- 
selves, rarely  with  their  husbands,  and  their  sex  is  virtu- 
ally a  clique.  In  Egypt  a  man  never  converses  with  his 
wife,  and  in  the  tomb  they  are  separated  by  a  wall, 
though  males  and  females  are  not  usually  buried  in  the 
same  vault. ^ 

Amongst  the  Dacotas  custom  and  superstition  ordain 
that  the  wife  must  carefully  keep  away  from  all  that 

races,  woman  was  treated  by  the  men  with  a  chivalrous  respect 
due  to  the  prevalence  of  the  maternal  system  and  ideas  of  sym- 
pathetic magic;  but  she  nevertheless  did  not  participate  in  their 
activities  and  interests. 

I  A.  E.  Crawley,  "Sexual  Taboo,"  Journal  of  the  Anthropo' 
logical  Institute,  Vol.  XXIV,  p.  233. 


296  Sex  and  Society 

belongs  to  her  husband's  sphere  of  action.  The  Bechu- 
anas   never  allow  their  women  to  touch  their  cattle; 

accordingly  the  men  have  to  plow  themselves In 

Guiana  no  woman  may  go  near  the  hut  where  ourali  is 
made.  In  the  Marquesas  Islands  the  use  of  canoes  is 
prohibited  to  the  famale  sex  by  tabu:  the  breaking  of  the 
rule  is  punished  with  death.  Conversely,  amongst  the 
same  people  /a/>a-making  belongs  exclusively  to  the 
women:  when  they  are  making  it  for  their  own  head- 
dresses it  is  tahii  for  the  men  to  touch  it.  In  Nicaragua 
all  the  marketing  was  done  by  the  women.  A  man  might 
not  enter  the  market  nor  even  see  the  proceedings  at  the 
risk  of  a  beating In  Samoa  where  the  manufac- 
ture of  cloth  is  allotted  solely  to  the  women,  it  is  a 
degradation  for  a  man  to  engage  in  any  detail  of  the  pro- 
cess  An  Eskimo  thinks  it  an  indignity  to  row 

in  an  umiak,  the  large  boat  used  by  women.  The  dififer- 
ent  offices  of  husband  and  wife  are  also  clearly  distin- 
guished ;  for  example,  when  he  has  brought  his  booty  to 
land  it  would  be  a  stigma  on  his  character  if  he  so  much  as 
drew  a  seal  ashore,  and  generally  it  is  regarded  as  scanda- 
lous for  a  man  to  interfere  with  what  is  the  work  of 
women.  In  British  Guiana  cooking  is  the  province  of 
the  women,  as  elsewhere ;  on  one  occasion  when  the  men 
were  compelled  perforce  to  bake  some  bread  they  were 
only  persuaded  to  do  so  with  the  utmost  difficulty,  and 
were  ever  after  pointed  at  as  old  women.' 

Amongst  the  Barea,  man  and  wife  seldom  share  the 
same  bed;  the  reason  they  give  is  that  the  breath  of  the 
wife  weakens  the  husband The  Khyoungthas 

I  Ibid.,  p.  227. 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     297 

have  a  legend  of  a  man  who  reduced  a  king  and  his  men 
to  a  condition  of  feebleness  by  persuading  them  to  dress 
up  as  women  and  perform  female  duties.  When  they  had 
thus  been  rendered   effeminate  they  were  attacked  and 

defeated  without  a   blow Contempt  for  female 

timidity  has  caused  a  curious  custom  amongst  the  Gallas: 
they  amputate  the  mammae  of  the  boys  soon  after  birth, 
believing  that  no  warrior  can  possibly  be  brave  who 
possesses  them,  and  that  they  should  belong  to  women 

only Amongst  the  Lhoosais  when  a  man  is  unable 

to  do  his  work,  whether  through  laziness,  cowardice  or 
bodily  incapacity,  he  is  dressed  in  women's  clothes  and 
has  to  associate  and  work  with  the  women.  Amongst 
the  Pomo  Indians  of  California,  when  a  man  becomes 
too  infirm  for  a  warrior  he  is  made  a  menial  and  assists 

the  squaws WTien  the  Delawares  were  denation- 

ized  by  the  Iroquois  and  prohibited  from  going  to  war 
they  were  according  to  the  Indian  notion  "made  women," 
and  were  henceforth  to  confine  themselves  to  the  pursuits 
appropriate  to  women.* 

Women  were  still  further  degraded  by  the 
development  of  property  and  its  control  by  man, 
together  with  the  habit  of  treating  her  as  a  piece 
of  property,  whose  value  was  enhanced  if  its 
purity  were  assured  and  demonstrable.  As  a 
result  of  this  situation,  man's  chief  concern  in 
women  became  an  interest  in  securing  the  finest 
specimens  for  his  own  use,  in  guarding  them 
with  jealous  care  from  contact  with  other  men, 

'  Ibid.,  pp.  123-25. 


298  Sex  and  Society 

and  in  making  them,  together  with  the  orna- 
ments they  wore,  signs  of  his  wealth  and  social 
standing.  The  instances  below  are  extreme 
ones,  taken  from  lower  social  stages  than  our 
own,  but  they  differ  only  in  degree  from  the 
chaperonage  of  modern  Europe : 

I  heard  from  a  teacher  about  some  strange  custom  con- 
nected with  some  of  the  young  girls  here  [New  Ireland],  so 
I  asked  the  chief  to  take  me  to  the  house  where  they  were. 
The  house  was  about  twenty-five  feet  in  length  and  stood 
in  a  reed  and  bamboo  enclosure,  across  the  entrance  of 
which  a  bundle  of  dried  grass  was  suspended  to  show  that 
it  was  strictly  tabu.  Inside  the  house  there  were  three 
conical  structures  about  seven  or  eight  feet  in  height,  and 
about  ten  or  twelve  feet  in  circumference  at  the  bottom, 
and  for  about  four  feet  from  the  ground,  at  which  point 
they  tapered  ofif  to  a  point  at  the  top.  These  cages  were 
made  of  the  broad  leaves  of  the  pandanus  tree,  sewn  quite 
close  together  so  that  no  light,  and  little  or  no  air  could 
enter.  On  one  side  of  each  is  an  opening  which  is  closed 
by  a  double  door  of  plaited  cocoanut  tree  and  pandanus 
tree  leaves.  About  three  feet  from  the  ground  there  is  a 
stage  of  bamboos  which  forms  the  floor.  In  each  of  these 
cages,  we  were  told  there  was  a  young  woman  confined, 
each  of  whom  had  to  remain  for  at  least  four  or  five  years 
without  ever  being  allowed  to  go  outside  the  house.  I 
could  scarcely  credit  the  story  when  I  heard  it ;  the  whole 
thing  seemed  too  horrible  to  be  true.  I  spoke  to  the 
chief  and  told  him  that  I  wished  to  see  the  inside  of  the 
cages,  and  also  to  see  the  girls  that  I  might  make  them  a 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     299 

present  of  a  few  beads [A  girl  having  been  allowed 

to  come  out]  I  then  went  to  inspect  the  inside  of  the  cage 
out  of  which  she  had  come,  but  could  scarcely  put  my 
head  inside  of  it,  the  atmosphere  was  so  hot  and  stifling. 
It  was  clean  and  contained  nothing  but  a  few  short  lengths 
of  bamboo  for  holding  water.  There  was  only  room  for 
the  girl  to  sit  or  lie  down  in  a  crouched  position  on  the 
bamboo  platform,  and  when  the  doors  are  shut  it  must  be 
nearly  or  quite  dark  inside.  They  are  never  allowed  to 
come  out  except  once  a  day  to  bathe  in  a  dish  or  wooden 
bowl  placed  close  to  the  cage.  They  say  that  they  per- 
spire profusely.  They  are  placed  in  these  stifling  cages 
when  quite  young,  and  must  remain  there  until  they  are 
young  women,  when  they  are  taken  out  and  have  each  a 
great  marriage  feast  prepared  for  them.  One  of  them 
was  about  fourteen  or  fifteen  years  old,  and  the  chief  told 
me  that  she  had  been  there  for  five  years,  but  would  soon 
be  taken  out  now.  The  other  two  were  about  eight  and 
ten  years  old,  and  they  have  to  stay  there  for  several 
years  longer.  I  asked  if  they  never  died,  but  they  said 
"No."^ 

They  [the  Azande]  are  extremely  jealous  of  their 
womenfolk,  whom  they  do  not  permit  to  Hvc  in  the  same 
village  with  themselves.  The  women's  village  is  gener- 
ally in  the  bush,  about  200  yards  or  so  distant  from  that 
of  the  chief.  Women  are  never  seen  in  an  Azande  village, 
the  pathway  to  their  own  being  kept  secret  from  all  out- 
siders. This  system  while  being  something  like  that 
observed  by  the  Arabs,  has  the  impohant  distinction 

I  Banks,  "Marriage  Customs  of  the  New  Britain  Group," 
Journal  of  the  Anthropological  htstitule,  Vol.  XVII,  p.  284. 


300  Sex  and  Society 

that  the  women  are  not  shut  up.  They  are  free  to  come 
and  go  and  do  what  they  Hke,  except  visit  the  men's 
village.  In  common  with  the  entire  native  population  of 
Central  Africa,  the  custom  among  the  Zande  is  that  the 
men  do  no  work  that  is  not  connected  with  the  chase 
or  the  manufacture  of  implements.  All  agriculture  is 
carried  on  by  the  women. ^ 

From  the  time  of  engagement  until  marriage  a  young 
lady  is  required  to  maintain  the  strictest  seclusion. 
Whenever  friends  call  upon  her  parents  she  is  expected 
to  retire  to  the  inner  apartments,  and  in  all  her  actions 
and  words  guard  her  conduct  with  careful  solicitude. 
She  must  use  a  close  sedan  whenever  she  visits  her  rela- 
tions, and  in  her  intercourse  with  her  brothers  and  the 
domestics  in  the  household  maintain  great  reserve. 
Instead  of  having  any  opportunity  to  form  those  friend- 
ships and  acquaintances  with  her  own  sex  which  among 
ourselves  become  a  source  of  much  pleasure  at  the  time 
and  advantage  in  after  life,  the  Chinese  maiden  is  con- 
fined to  the  circle  of  her  relations  and  her  immediate 
neighbors.  She  has  few  of  the  pleasing  remembrances 
and  associations  that  are  usually  connected  with  school- 
day  life,  nor  has  she  often  the  ability  or  opportunity  to 
correspond  by  letter  with  girls  of  her  own  age.  Seclusion 
at  this  time  of  life,  and  the  custom  of  crippUng  the  feet, 
combine  to  confine  women  in  the  house  almost  as  much  as 
the  strictest  laws  against  their  appearing  abroad;  for  in 
girlhood,  as  they  know  only  a  few  persons  except  rela- 
tives, and  can  make  very  few  acquaintances  after  marriage 

I  Burrows,  "  On  the  Native  Races  of  the  Upper  Welle  Dis- 
trict of  the  Belgian  Congo,"  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Insti- 
tide,  N.  S.  Vol.  I,  p.  41. 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     301 

their  circle  of  friends  contracts  rather  than  enlarges  as 
life  goes  on.  This  privacy  impels  girls  to  learn  as  much 
of  the  world  as  they  can,  and  among  the  rich  their  curios- 
ity is  gratified  through  maid-servants,  match-makers, 
peddlers,  visitors,  and  others,' 

The  world  of  white  civilization  is  intellectually 
rich  because  it  has  amassed  a  rich  fund  of  general 
ideas,  and  has  organized  these  into  specialized 
bodies  of  knowledge,  and  has  also  developed  a 
special  technique  for  the  presentation  of  this 
knowledge  and  standpoint  to  the  young  members 
of  society,  and  for  localizing  their  attention  in 
special  fields  of  interest.  When  for  any  reason 
a  class  of  society  is  excluded  from  this  process, 
as  women  have  been  historically,  it  must  neces- 
sarily remain  ignorant.  But,  while  no  one 
would  make  any  question  that  women  confined 
as  these  in  New  Ireland  and  China,  as  shown 
above,  must  have  an  intelligence  as  restricted 
as  their  mode  of  life,  we  are  apt  to  lose  sight 
altogether  of  the  fact  that  chivalry  and  chaper- 
onage  and  modern  convention  are  the  persistence 
of  the  old  race  habit  of  contempt  for  women,  and 
of  their  intellectual  sequestration.  Men  and 
women  still  form  two  distinct  classes  and  are 
not  in  free  communication   with  each  other. 

I  Williams,  The  Middle  Kingdom,  Vol.  I,  p.  786. 


302  Sex  and  Society 

Not  only  are  women  unable  and  unwilling  to  be 
communicated  with  directly,  unconventionally, 
and  truly  on  many  subjects,  but  men  are  unwill- 
ing to  talk  to  them.  I  do  not  have  in  mind 
situations  involving  questions  of  propriety  or 
delicacy  alone,  but  a  certain  habit  of  restraint,  I 
originating  doubtless  in  matters  relating  to  sex, 
extends  to  all  intercourse  with  women,  with  the 
result  that  they  are  not  really  admitted  to  the 
intellectual  world  of  men ;  and  there  is  not  only  a 
reluctance  on  the  part  of  men  to  admit  them,  but 
a  reluctance — or,  rather,  a  real  inability — on 
their  part  to  enter.  Modesty  with  reference  to  i 
personal  habits  has  become  so  ingrained  and 
habitual,  and  to  do  anything  freely  is  so  foreign 
to  woman,  that  even  free  thought  is  almost  of  , 
the  nature  of  an  immodesty  in  her. 

In  connection  also  with  the  adventitious  posi- 
tion of  woman  referred  to  in  another  paper, '  the 
feminine  interests  and  habits  are  set  so  strongly 
toward  dress  and  personal  display  that  they  are 
not  readily  diverted.  Women  may  and  do  pro- 
test against  the  triviality  of  their  lives,  but 
emotional  interests  are  more  immediate  than 
intellectual  ones,  and  human  nature  does  not 
drift  into  intellectual  pursuit  voluntarily,  but  is 

»  Cf.  pp.  223  ff.  of  this  volume. 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     303 

forced  into  it  in  connection  with  the  urgency 
of  practical  activities.  The  women  who  are 
obliged  to  work  are  of  the  poorer  classes,  and 
have  not  that  leisure  and  opportunity  preliminary 
to  any  specialized  acquirement ;  while  those  who 
have  leisure  are  supported  in  that  position  both 
by  money  and  by  precedent  and  habit,  and  have 
no  immediate  stimulation  to  lift  them  out  of  it. 
They  sometimes  entertain  ideas  of  freedom  and 
plan  occupational  interests,  but  they  have 
usually  become  thoroughly  habituated  to  their 
unfreedom,  and  continue  to  feed  from  the 
hand. 

Custom  lies  upon  them  with  a  weight 
Heavy  as  frost  and  deep  almost  as  life. 

The  usual  reasoning  as  to  the  ability  of  women 
also  overlooks  the  fact  that  many  women  are 
larger  and  stronger  than  many  men,  and  some 
of  them  possessed  of  tremendous  energy,  will, 
wit,  endurance,  and  sagacity.  This  type  ap- 
pears in  all  classes  of  society,  but  more  fre- 
quently in  the  lower  classes  and  among  peasants, 
both  because  the  natural  qualities  are  less 
glozed  over  there  by  aristocratic  custom,  and 
because  these  classes  are  bred  truer  to  nature. 
Unfortunately,  the  attention  of  the  women  of 
these  classes  is  limited  to  very  immediate  con- 


304  Sex  and  Society 

cerns;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  they  present  the 
true  qualities  of  the  female  type,  and  few,  I 
believe,  will  deny  that  the  peasant  woman 
described  below  would  shine  in  intellectual 
walks  if  fate  had  called  her  there : 

Mother  was  a  large,  stout,  full-blooded  woman  of  great 
strength.  She  could  not  read  or  write,  and  yet  she 
was  well  thought  of.  There  are  all  sorts  of  educations, 
and  though  reading  and  writing  are  very  well  in  their 
way,  they  would  not  have  done  mother  any  good.  She 
had  the  sort  of  education  that  was  needed  in  her  work. 
Nobody  knew  more  about  raising  vegetables,  ducks, 
chickens  and  pigeons  than  she  did.  There  were  some 
among  the  neighbors  who  could  read  and  write  and  so 
thought  themselves  above  mother,  but  when  they  went 
to  market  they  found  their  mistake.  Her  peas,  beans, 
cauliflower,  cabbages,  pumpkins,  melons,  potatoes, 
beets,  and  onions  sold  for  the  highest  price  of  any,  and 
that  ought  to  show  whose  education  was  the  best, 
because  it  is  the  highest  education  that  produces  the 
finest  work. 

Mother  used  to  take  me  frequently  to  the  market 

The  market  women  were  a  big,  rough,  fat,  jolly  set,  who 
did  not  know  what  sickness  was,  and  it  might  have  been 
well  for  me  if  I  had  stayed  among  them  and  grown  up 
like  mother.  One  time  in  the  market-place  I  saw  a 
totally  different  set  of  women.  It  was  about  8  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  when  some  people  began  to  shout:  "Here 
come  the  rich  Americans!  Now  we  will  sell  things!" 
We  saw  a  large  party  of  travelers  coming  through  the 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     305 

crowd.  They  looked  very  queer.  Their  clothes  seemed 
queer,  as  they  were  so  diflferent  from  ours.  They  wore 
leather  boots  instead  of  wooden  shoes,  and  they  all  looked 
weak  and  pale.  The  women  were  tall  and  thin,  like  bean- 
poles, and  their  shoulders  were  stooped  and  narrow; 
most  of  them  wore  glasses  or  spectacles,  showing  that 
their  eyes  were  weak.  The  corners  of  their  mouths  were 
all  pulled  down,  and  their  faces  were  crossed  and  criss- 
crossed with  lines  and  wrinkles,  as  though  they  were 
carrying  all  the  care  of  the  world.     Our  women  all  began 

to  laugh  and  dance  and  shout  at  the  strangers 

The  sight  of  these  people  gave  me  my  first  idea  of 
America.  I  heard  that  the  women  there  never  worked, 
laced  themselves  too  tightly,  and  were  always  ill.^ 

The  French  dressmaker  who  wrote  this  pas- 
sage has  the  true  idea  of  education  and  of  mind. 
The  mind  is  an  organ  for  controlHng  the  en- 
vironment, and  it  is  a  safe  general  principle  that 

'  The  Life  Stories  of  Undistinguished  Americans  (Edited)  by 
Hamilton  Holt,  pp.  100  ff. 

This  peasant  woman  represents  the  true  female  type,  and  the 
American  women  in  the  scene  represent  the  adventitious  type  of 
woman.  The  frail  and  clinging  type  is  an  adjustment  to  the  tastes 
of  man,  produced  partly  by  custom  and  partly  by  breeding;  But 
in  so  far  as  the  selection  of  frail  women  by  men  of  the  upper 
classes  has  contributed  to  the  production  of  a  frail  or  so-called 
^  "feminine"  type  in  these  classes,  this  applies  to  the  males  as  well 
\  as  the  females  of  these  classes.  And  there  is,  in  fact,  a  more  or 
less  marked  tendency  to  "feminism"  apparent  among  the  men 
and  women  of  the  "better  classes."  If  we  want  to  breed  for 
mind,  we  can  do  so,  but  we  must  breed  on  better  pnnciples  than 
beauty  and  docility^ 


3o6  Sex  and  Society 

the  mind  which  shows  high  power  in  the  manipu- 
lation of  a  simple  situation  will  show  the  same 
quality  of  efficiency  in  a  more  complex  one. 

The  savage,  the  peasant,  the  poor  man,  and 
woman  are  not  what  we  call  intellectual,  because 
they  are  not  taught  to  know  and  manipulate 
the  materials  of  knowledge.  The  savage  is 
outside  the  process  from  geographical  reasons; 
the  peasant  is  not  in  the  center  of  interest;  the 
poor  man's  needs  are  pressing,  and  do  not  per- 
mit of  interests  of  a  mediate  character;  and 
woman  does  not  participate  because  it  is  neither 
necessary  nor  womanly. 

Even  the  most  serious  women  of  the  present 
day  stand,  in  any  work  they  undertake,  in  pre- 
cisely the  same  relation  to  men  that  the  amateur 
!  stands  to  the  professional  in  games.  They  may 
be  desperately  interested  and  may  work  to  the 
limit  of  endurance  at  times;  but,  like  the  ama- 
teur, they  got  into  the  game  late,  and  have  not 
had  a  life-time  of  practice,  or  they  do  not  have 
the  advantage  of  that  pace  gained  only  by  com- 
peting incessantly  with  players  of  the  very  first 
rank.  No  one  will  contend  that  the  amateur  in 
billiards  has  a  nervous  organization  less  fitted 
to  the  game  than  the  professional ;  it  is  admitted 
that  the  difference  lies  in  the  constant  practice 


The  Mind  oj  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     307 

of  the  professional,  the  more  exacting  standards 
prevailing  in  the  professional  ranks,  and  con- 
stant play  in  "fast  company."  A  group  of 
women  would  make  a  sorry  spectacle  in  com- 
petition with  a  set  of  men  who  made  billiards 
their  life-work.  But  how  sad  a  spectacle  the 
eminent  philosophers  of  the  world  would  make 
in  the  same  competition ! 

Scientific  pursuits  and  the  allied  intellectual 
occupations  are  a  game  which  women  have 
entered  late,  and  their  lack  of  practice  is  fre- 
quently mistaken  for  lack  of  natural  ability. 
Writing  some  years  ago  of  the  women  in  his 
classes  at  the  University  of  Zurich,  Professor 
Carl  Vogt  said: 

At  lectures  the  young  women  are  models  of  attention 
and  application;  perhaps  they  even  make  too  great  effort 
to  carry  home  in  black  and  white  what  they  have  heard. 
They  generally  sit  in  the  front  seats,  because  they  register 
early,  and,  moreover,  because  they  come  early,  long 
before  the  lecture  begins.  But  it  is  noticeable  that  they 
give  only  a  superficial  glance  at  the  preparations  which 
the  professor  passes  around.  Sometimes  they  pass  them 
to  their  neighbor  without  even  looking  at  them ;  a  longer 
examination  would  prevent  their  taking  notes. 

On  examination  the  conduct  of  the  young  women  is  the 
same  as  during  the  lectures.  They  know  better  than  the 
young  men.     To  employ  a  classroom  expression,  they 


3o8  Sex  and  Society 

are  enormously  crammed.  Their  memory  is  good,  so 
that  they  know  perfectly  how  to  give  the  answer  to  the 
question  which  is  put.  But  generally  they  stop  there. 
An  indirect  question  makes  them  lose  the  thread.  As 
soon  as  the  examiner  appeals  to  individual  reason,  the 
examination  is  over;  they  do  not  answer.  The  examiner 
seeks  to  make  the  sense  of  the  question  clearer,  and  uses 
a  word,  perhaps,  which  is  in  the  manuscript  of  the  student, 
when,  pop!  the  thing  goes  as  if  you  had  pressed  the 
button  of  a  telephone.  If  the  examination  consisted 
solely  in  written  or  oral  replies  to  questions  on  subjects 
which  have  been  treated  in  the  lectures  or  which  could  be 
read  up  on  in  the  manuals,  the  ladies  would  always  secure 
brilliant  results.  But,  alas!  there  are  other  practical 
tests  in  which  the  candidate  finds  herself  face  to  face  with 
reality,  and  that  she  cannot  meet  successfully  unless  she 
has  done  practical  work  in  the  laboratories,  and  it  is  there 
the  shoe  pinches. 

The  respect  in  which  laboratory  work  is  particularly 
difficult  to  women — one  would  hardly  believe  it — is  that 
they  are  often  very  awkward  and  clumsy  with  their  hands. 
The  assistants  in  the  laboratories  are  unanimous  in  their 
complaint;  they  are  pursued  with  questions  about  the 
most  trifling  things,  and  one  woman  gives  them  more 
trouble  than  three  men. '  One  would  think  the  delicate 
fingers  of  these  young  women  adapted  especially  to 
microscopic  work,  to  the  manipulation  of  small  slides, 
to  cutting  thin  sections,  to  making  the  most  delicate 
preparations;  the  truth  is  quite  the  contrary.  You  can 
tell  the  table  of  a  woman  at  a  glance :  from  the  fragments 
of  glass,  broken  instruments,  the  broken  scalpels,  the 


The  Mind  oj  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     309 

spoiled  preparations.     There  are  doubtless  exceptions, 
but  they  are  exceptions.' 

Ziirich  was  among  the  first  of  the  European 
universities  opening  their  doors  to  women,  and 
it  is  particularly  interesting  to  see  their  first 
efforts  in  connection  with  the  higher  learning. 
Without  a  wide  experience  of  life,  and  without 
practice  in  constructive  thinking,  they  naturally 
fell  back  on  the  memory  to  retain  a  hold  on 
results  in  a  field  with  which  they  were  not  suffi- 
ciently trained  to  operate  in  it  independently. 
It  is  frequently  alleged,  and  is  implied  in  Pro- 
fessor Vogt's  report,  that  women  are  distin- 
guished by  good  memories  and  poor  powers  of 
generalization.  But  this  is  to  mistake  the 
facts.  A  tenacious  memory  is  characteristic  of 
women  and  children,  and  of  all  persons  unskilled 
in  the  manipulation  of  varied  experiences  in 
thought.  But  when  the  mind  is  able  at  any 
moment  to  construct  a  result  from  the  raw 
materials  of  experience,  the  memory  loses  some- 
thing of  its  tenacity  and  absoluteness.  In  this 
sense  it  may  even  be  said  that  a  good  memory 
for  details  is  a  sign  of  an  untrained  or  imitative 
mind.     As  the  mind  becomes  more  inventive, 

I  Ploss,  Das  Weib,  2  Auf.,  Vol.  I,  p.  46. 


3IO  Sex  and  Society 

the  memory  is  less  concerned  with  the  details  of 
knowledge  and  more  with  the  knowledge  of 
places  to  find  the  details  when  they  are  needed 
in  any  special  problem. 

The  awkwardness  in  manual  manipulation 
shown  by  these  girls  was  also  surely  due  to  lack 
of  practice.  The  fastest  typewriter  in  the  world 
is  today  a  woman ;  the  record  for  roping  steers 
(a  feat  depending  on  manual  dexterity  rather  than 
physical  force)  is  held  by  a  woman;  and  any- 
one who  will  watch  girls  making  change  before 
the  pneumatic  tubes  in  the  great  department 
stores  about  Christmas  time  will  experience  the 
same  wonder  one  feels  on  first  seeing  a  profes- 
sional gambler  shuffling  cards. 

In  short,  Professor  Vogt's  report  on  women 
students  is  just  what  was  to  be  expected  in  Ger- 
many forty  years  ago.  The  American  woman, 
with  the  enjoyment  of  greater  liberty,  has  made 
an  approach  toward  the  standards  of  profes- 
sional scholarship,  and  some  individuals  stand 
at  the  very  top  in  their  university  studies  and 
examinations.  The  trouble  with  these  cases 
is  that  they  are  either  swept  away  and  engulfed 
by  the  modern  system  of  marriage,  or  find  them- 
selves excluded  in  some  intangible  way  from 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     311 

"1 
association  with  men  in  the  fullest  sense,  and 

no  career  open  to  their  talents. 

The  personal  liberty  of  women  is,  compara- 
tively speaking,  so  great  in  America,  suggestion 
and  copies  for  imitation  are  spread  broadcast 
so  copiously  in  the  schools,  newspapers,  books, 
and  lectures,  and  occupations  and  interests  are 
becoming  so  varied,  that  a  number  of  women 
of  natural  ability  and  character  are  realizing 
some  definite  aim  in  a  perfect  way.  But  these 
are  sporadic  cases,  representing  usually  some 
definite  interest  rather  than  a  full  intellectual 
life,  and  resembling  also  in  their  nature  and 
rarity  the  elevation  of  a  peasant  to  a  position  of 
eminence  in  Europe.  Nowhere  in  the  world  do 
women  as  a  class  lead  a  perfectly  free  intellec- 
tual life  in  common  with  the  men  of  the  group, 
unless  it  be  in  restricted  and  artificial  groups  like 
the  modern  revolutionary  party  in  Russia. 

Even  in  America  a  number  of  the  great  schools 
are  not  coeducational,  and  in  those  which  are  so, 
many  of  the  instructors  claim  that  they  do  not  find 
it  possible  to  treat  with  the  men  and  women  on 
precisely  the  same  basis,  both  because  of  their 
own  mental  attitude  toward  mixed  classes  and 
the  inability  of  the  women  to  receive  such  treat- 


312  Sex  and  Society 

ment.  In  the  case  of  women  also  we  can  say 
what  Mr.  Smith  says  of  the  Chinese  and  their 
system  of  education,  that  it  is  impossible  not  to 
marvel  at  the  results  they  accomplish  in  view  of 
the  system  under  which  they  work. 

The  mind  and  the  personality  are  largely 
built  up  by  suggestion  from  the  outside,  and  if 
the  suggestions  are  limited  and  particular,  so 
will  be  the  mind.  The  world  of  modern  intel- 
lectual life  is  in  reality  a  white  man's  world.  Few 
women  and  perhaps  no  blacks  have  ever  entered 
this  world  in  the  fullest  sense.  To  enter  it  in 
the  fullest  sense  would  be  to  be  in  it  at  every 
moment  from  the  time  of  birth  to  the  time  of 
death,  and  to  absorb  it  unconsciously  and  con- 
sciously, as  the  child  absorbs  language.  When 
something  like  this  happens,  we  shall  be  in  a 
position  to  judge  of  the  mental  efficiency  of 
woman  and  the  lower  races.  At  present  w^e 
seem  justified  in  inferring  that  the  differences 
in  mental  expression  between  the  higher  and 
lower  races  and  between  men  and  women  are 
no  greater  than  they  should  be  in  view  of  the 
existing  differences  in  opportunity. 

Indeed,  when  we  take  into  consideration  the 
superior  cunning  as  well  as  the  superior  endur- 
ance of  women,  we  may  even  raise  the  question 


The  Mind  of  Woman  and  the  Lower  Races     313 

whether  their  capacity  for  intellectual  work  is 
not  under  equal  conditions  greater  than  in 
men.  Cunning  is  the  analogue  of  constructive 
thought — an  indirect,  mediated,  and  intelligent 
approach  to  a  problem — and  characteristic  of 
the  female,  in  contrast  with  the  more  direct  and 
open  procedure  of  the  male.  Owing  to  the 
limited  and  personal  nature  of  the  activities  of 
woman,  this  trait  has  expressed  itself  histori- 
cally in  womankind  as  intrigue  rather  than  in- 
vention, but  that  it  is  very  deeply  based  in  the 
instincts  is  shown  by  the  important  role  it 
plays  in  the  life  of  the  female  in  animal  life. 
Endurance  is  also  a  factor  of  prime  importance 
in  intellectual  performance,  for  here  as  in  busi- 
ness life  "it  is  doggedness  as  does  it;"  and  if 
woman's  endurance  and  natural  ingenuity  were 
combined  in  intellectual  pursuits,  it  might  prove 
that  the"  gray  mare  is  the  better  horse  in  this 
field  as  well  as  in  peasant  life.  The  most 
serious  objection,  also,  to  the  view  that  woman 
is  fitted  to  do  continuous  and  hard  work,  arises 
from  her  relation  to  child-bearing;  but  this  is  at 
bottom  trivial.  The  period  of  child-bearing  is 
not  only  not  continuous  through  life,  but  it  is  not 
serious  from  the  standpoint  of  the  time  lost. 
No  work  is  without  interruption,  and  child-birth 


314  Sex  and  Society 

is  an  incident  in  the  life  of  normal  woman  of  no 
more  significance,  when  viewed  in  the  aggre- 
gate and  from  the  standpoint  of  time,  than  the 
interruption  of  the  work  of  men  by  their  in-  and 
out-of-door  games.  The  important  point  in  all  j 
work  is  not  to  be  uninterrupted,  but  to  begin  ' 
again. 

Whether  the  characteristic  mental  life  of 
women  and  the  lower  races  will  prove  to  be 
identical  with  those  of  the  white  man  or  different 
in  quality  is  a  different  question,  and  problem- 
atical. It  is  certain,  at  any  rate,  that  our 
civilization  is  not  of  the  highest  type  possible. 
In  all  our  relations  there  is  too  much  of  primitive 
man's  fighting  instinct  and  technique;  and  it  is 
not  impossible  that  the  participation  of  woman 
and  the  lower  races  will  contribute  new  elements, 
change  the  stress  of  attention,  disturb  the  equilib- 
rium, and  force  a  crisis  which  will  result  in  the 
reconstruction  of  our  habits  on  more  sympathetic 
and  equitable  principles.  Certain  it  is  that  no 
civilization  can  remain  the  highest  if  another 
civilization  adds  to  the  intelligence  of  its  men 
the  intelligence  of  its  women. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abnormalities,  27. 
Abstraction,    in    lower    races, 

267. 
Adams,  115. 
Adolescence,  115. 
Adoption,  82,  88. 
Adventuress,  239. 
Aesthetic  life  and  sex-suscepti- 
bility, 120. 
Agriculture:   and  woman,  136; 

as  man's  work,  145. 
Altruism,  120. 
Anabolism  of  female,   29,   35, 

42,  48. 
Anaesthetics,  35. 
Angell,  202. 
Animal  environment  of  man, 

136;    more  katabolic,  3. 
Animals:      domestication     of, 

137;  memory  and  judgment 

of,  253. 
Anomalies,  27. 
Aphrodisiacs,  176. 
Appendicitis,  253. 
Arbousset  and  Daumas,  126. 
Aristotle,  289. 
Asexual  reproduction,  10. 
Associational  and  sympathetic 

relations,  105. 
Athleticism  in  women,  22. 
Attention,  279;   break  in,  108, 

202,  207. 
Atrophied  organs,  223. 


B 

Bachhofen,  70. 

Baker,  155. 

Bancroft,  76,  88,  141. 

Bandelier,  142. 

Bartels,  36. 

Battel,  62. 

Becquerel,  31. 

Behavior:  regulation  of,  211; 
standards  of,  212,  214,  219. 

Billroth,  38. 

Birthrate,  13,  42;  of  Jews,  13; 
of  metis,  13. 

Blood,  30,  48. 

Blood-brotherhood,  90. 

Blood-vengeance,  90. 

Blushing,  211. 

Boas,  84. 

Boccaccio,  194. 

Bonwick,  125,  168,  180,  210, 
214. 

Bosman,  82. 

Bowdich,  116. 

Boyle,  156. 

Boys,  training  of,  152. 

Brain,  18,  49;  methods  of 
studying,  256;  of  apes,  253; 
of  Chinese,  254;  of  Egyp- 
tians, 254;  of  negro,  254; 
relation  of,  to  culture,  260; 
relation  of,  to  social  condi- 
tion, 281;   weight,  253. 

Bride-price,  78,  83. 

Brother-sister  marriage,  89. 


317 


3i8 


Index 


Bruce,  27. 
Burckhardt,  153. 
Burgoin,  34. 
Burrows,  300. 
Butler,  159. 

C 

Cadet,  31. 

Calkins,  11. 

Campbell,  27,  29,  35,  4°- 

Cannibalism,  163. 

Carle,  38. 

Caste,  93. 

Celibacy,  29. 

Chastity,  attitude  toward,  86, 

170. 
Chemiotaxis,  103. 
Child,    helplessness    of,     226; 

parallelism     between,      and 

race,  281. 
Child-bearing,  313. 
Child-birth,  38. 
Child-marriage,  86,  169,  177. 
Children,  punishment  of,  152. 
Chivalry,  73. 

Choice  and  rejection,  104. 
Circumcision,  90. 
Civihzation:     nature   of,    301; 

ours  not  of  highest  order,  314. 
Clan,  195. 
Class  distinctions,     origin     of, 

156. 
Closson,  92. 
Clothing:    as   ornament,    215; 

man's  interest  in,  139;  origin 

of,  201;  psychology  of,  201- 

220. 
Clubfoot,  28. 


Clubs,  among  primitive  men, 
294. 

Coeducation,  311. 

Collins,  44. 

Comradeship,  origin  of,  120. 

Conflict  interest,  98,  loi,  105, 
132,  137.  204,  243. 

Conservatism :  among  orient- 
als, 284;  of  woman,  mor- 
phological and  physiological, 
18,  19,  51. 

Control :  based  on  male  activi- 
ty, 168;  by  old  men,  184;  in 
relation  to  sex,  55;  primitive 
social,  55-94- 

Courage,  109,  132,  151. 

Courtship,  iii,  208,  210,  213, 
229,  235,  238. 

Cousins,  marriage  of,  13. 

Coyness  of  female,  208,  219. 

Crawley,  295. 

Criminal,  243. 

Criminahty,  28. 

Crossing,  12,  57. 

Cruelty  to  women,  76. 

Culture,  effect  of  higher  on 
lower,  213. 

Cunning:  analogue  of  con- 
structive thought,  313;  of 
woman,  292. 

Cunningham,  28. 

Curr,  180,  188,  190. 

D 

Dances,  erotic,  177. 
Danks,  177,  299. 
Dargun,  70,  77,  82. 
Darwin,  15,  18,  202,  204. 


Index 


319 


Deafmutism,  28. 

Defectives,  25. 

Delaunay,  14,  19,  34,  35. 

Depaul,  45. 

Despotism,  93. 

Development,  problem  of,  244. 

Diodorus,  153. 

Disreputable  occupations,  242. 

Disvulnerability,  36. 

Divorce,  63. 

Domestication  of  animals,  137. 

Domestication    of    plants    by 

women,  136, 
Dorsey,  142. 
Doughty,  161. 
Dress,  as  play  interest,  237. 
Drudgery  of  primitive  woman, 

126,  131. 
Drury,  157. 
D  using,  4,  5. 

E 

Economic  dependence  of  man 
on  woman,  137. 

Education  for  women,  245. 

Ellis,  A.  B.,  90,  118,  269. 

Ellis,  H.,  4,  28,  38,  44,  201. 

Elopement,  184. 

Emotions,  104;  as  organic  prep- 
arations for  activity,  99,  131; 
complexity  of,  in  man,  205, 
209;  organic  basis  of,  202; 
origin  and  classification  of, 
208. 

Endogamy,  57,  192. 

Environment  and  mind,  252. 

Equality  of  women  in  unad- 
vanced  societies,  231. 


Equilibrium  of  bodily  processes, 

202. 
Eroticism,  176. 
Eugenism,  290. 
Exchange  of  women,  179,  189, 

194,  195- 
Exploitation  of  man  by  woman, 

238. 
Exogamy,  13,  57,  78,  89,  175- 

97- 


FamiHarity    and   sex   interest, 

194. 
Farr,    41. 
Fatness,  29. 
Fear,  paralysis  of,  204. 
Featherman,  141. 
Female,  anabolic,  3. 
Fen  wick,  36,  37. 
Ferrero,  47. 
Fiske,  107,  226. 
Fison  and  Howitt,    124,    186, 

187,  191. 
Forsyth,  168. 


Galton,  290. 

Gambetta,  brain  of,  256. 
Game:    effect   of  scarcity  of, 

143;      preparation     of,     for 

food,  138. 
Geddes  and  Thomson,  3,  8. 
Genius,  24,  51. 
Giordano,  38. 
Giraud-Teulon,  82. 
Grange,  155. 
Grey,  loi. 


320 


Index 


Groos,  112,  208,  209. 
Group-marriage,  183. 
Growth,  law  of,  in  boys  and 
girls,  6. 

H 

Habit,  break  in,  207,  218. 

Haddon,  190,  213,  214. 

Hammurabi,  Code  of,  276. 

Hanna,  21. 

Haushofer,  44. 

Hayem,  31,  32. 

Head-form,  19. 

Head-hunting,  155. 

Heckenwelder,  129,  131. 

Hegar,  29. 

Herodotus,  64. 

Hernia,  253. 

Hobbes,  128. 

Hofifman,  142. 

Homer,  164,  274. 

House,  owned  by  woman,  135. 

Hovelaque,  77. 

Howitt,  61,  181. 

Hunting-pattern     of     interest, 

280. 
Huschke,  19. 


Idiocy,  24,  51,  254;  increase  of, 

289. 
Ill-health  in  woman,  240. 
Imbeciles,  25. 

Incident,  as  social  force,  287. 
Industry:     and    sex,     123-46; 

organization  of,  by  man,  230. 
Infant  mortality,  43. 
Infibulation,  177. 


Ingenuity  in  lower  races,  277. 

Inhibition:  and  art,  283;  in 
lower  races,  263. 

Initiation,  90,  153. 

Insanity,  24,  51,  254;  increase 
of,  289. 

Insomnia,  35. 

Instincts,  persistence  of,  99. 

Intelligence  and  culture,  260. 

Interest,  hunting-pattern  of, 
280. 

Interests  of  savage  and  civilized, 
279. 

Invention  :  and  labor,  230; 
based  on  analogy,  278;  psy- 
chology of,  277. 

Inventiveness  of  man,  146. 

Irving,  140. 


Jacobs,  13. 

James,  98,  201. 

Jealousy,  217. 

Jennings,  104. 

Jews,  12. 

Jones,  32,  33,  48,  126,  161. 

Judgment,  104. 

K 

Kane,  76. 

Katabolism  of  male,  3,  33,  35, 

40. 
Key,  6. 

Kinship,  bond  of  clans,  195. 
Klebs,  8. 
Koch,  26. 
Korniloff,  31. 
Krafft-Ebing,  29,  115. 


Index 


321 


Labor:  and  invention,  146; 
division  of,  between  sexes, 
123,  140,  228;  of  primitive 
woman,  124,  129,  134;  sig- 
nificance of,  123;  woman's 
exemption  from,  127. 
Lacanu,  31. 
Lawlessness,     admiration     of, 

153- 
Lawrie,  36,  37. 
Layard,  283. 

Laziness  of  primitive  man,  128. 
Legal  authority,  161. 
Legal  standards,  162. 
Legouest,  36,  38. 
Leichtenstern,  27,  32,  2,:^- 
Lewis  and  Clarke,  151,  171. 
Liberty  of  woman  in  America, 

311- 
Life,  primarily  female,  224. 
Lippert,  62,  75,  91. 
Locke,  239. 
Loeb,  104. 

Lombroso,  28,  38,  39,  47. 
Longevity,  46. 
Love  of  offspring,  120. 
Lubbock,  62,  187. 
Lungs,  34. 

M 

McCosh,  155. 
Macfarlane,  35. 
McGee,  60,  79. 
McLennan,  82. 
Macrae,  154. 
Maine,  66,  284,  285,  288. 


Male:  activity,  social  value  of, 
151;  control  in  maternal  or- 
ganization, 75;  katabolism 
of'  3'  33.  35.  40;  relation  to 
nutrition,  4. 
Malgaigne,  36,  37. 
Man  as  a  domesticated  animal, 

135- 
Manley,  27. 

Manual  dexterity,  23;    of  wo- 
man, 310. 
Manufacture,     woman's    rela- 
tion to,  293. 
Margaret  of  Navarre,  194. 
Marriage:      by    capture,     80, 
187,  190;    by   purchase,  80; 
customs  of,  78,   154;   defini- 
tion of,  227;   modern  prob- 
lem of,  245 ;  of  cousins  among 
Jews,  13. 
Martini,  38. 
Mason,  166. 

Maternal  instinct,  106,  232. 
Maternal  system,   57-94,    135, 

141,  168,  228. 
Mather,  126. 
Maupas,  10,  ir. 
Mayr,  26,  47. 
Mela,  38. 

Memory  in  woman,  309. 
Metis,  13. 
Migration,   social    significance 

of,  91. 
Militancy,  chronic,  93. 
Military:  glory,  158;  organiza- 
tion, 73. 
Milne-Edwards,  34. 


322 


Index 


Mind:  formation  of,  312; 
ground-pattern  of,  243;  na- 
ture of,  251;  of  lower  races, 
251-312;  of  woman,  291- 
313;    produces  society,  277. 

Mitchell,  25. 

Modesty,  psychology  of,  201- 
20,  302. 

Moffat,  126. 

Monogamy,  176;  acquired, 
192;  basis  of,  192;  from 
biological  standpoint,  193, 
from  social  standpoint,  193. 

Morality:  contractual  in  man, 
imitational  in  woman,  172;- 
contractual  in  men,  personal 
in  women,  172,  219,  233; 
definition  of,  149;  depend- 
ence on  food  relations,  150; 
extribal  extension  of,  163; 
generalization  of,  167;  in  re- 
lation to  sex,  149-72;  male 
and  female  codes  of,  233; 
motor  type  of,  149,  152;  of 
woman,  233;  parallelism  of 
development  in,  275;  regu- 
lative function  of,  149;  rela- 
tion to  religion,  158;  stand- 
ards of,  developed  by  men, 
171;  tribal  character  of,  120, 
162,  163. 

Morgan,  58,  88,  143. 

Morphological :  conservatism  in 
woman,  18,  19,  51;  instability 
in  men,  24. 

Morselli,  39. 

Mortality,  26,  40,  43,  45. 

Mosaic  code,  276. 


Mosso,  204. 

Mother-right,  priority  of,  67. 

Motion:  appreciation  of,  156; 
capacity  for,  21,  23;  in  man, 
51.  55.  67,  87,  92,  123,  132, 
154,  219,  228,  291;  in 
woman,  293. 

Murder,  prohibition  of,  165. 

Muscular  co-ordination,  23. 

Musters,  80. 

N 
Nasse,  31. 
Newsholme,  41. 
Number-sense  in  lower  races, 

270. 
Nutrition  and  sex,  5,  9,  149. 

o 

Occupational  interest  for  wom- 
en, 245. 

Occupations:  hunting-pattern 
of,  280;  stationary  and 
motor,  123. 

Odyssey,  163. 

Oettingen,  39,  43. 

Organization:  man's  capacity 
for,  145;  of  industry  by  man, 

14s.  230- 

Ornament:  as  basis  of  cloth- 
ing, 215;  transference  of,  to 
woman,  219,  235. 

Ornstein,  46,  47. 

Owen,  125,  170. 

P 

Parallelism:  of  development, 
272;  in  morality,  275;'  in 
poetry,  274. 


Index 


323 


Parasitic  condition  of  women 
of  upper  classes,  232. 

Parental  instinct,  107. 

Paternal  authority,  62,  67,  70, 
76,  87,  90. 

Pearson,  17. 

Peasant  woman,  304, 

Phallic  worship,  177. 

Plant:  anabolic,  3;  domesti- 
cation of,  136. 

Pleasure  and  pain,  279. 

Ploss,  4,  43,  44,  56,  177,  309. 

Poetry,  parallelism  of  develop- 
m^ent  in,  274. 

Poison,  restrictions  in  use  of, 
165. 

Political  organization,  70. 

Polyandry,  7. 

Polygamy,  81,  142,  180,  181, 
191. 

Pope,  238. 

Post,  153. 

Pottery,  138. 

Powell,  70. 

Powers,  216. 

Prejudice,  103. 

Pre-matriarchal  stage,  68. 

Primitive  life,  its  character, 
128. 

Prohibitions,  159. 

Promiscuity,  67,  176. 

Property,  63,  141;  controlled 
by  man,  297. 

Proverb,  as  form  of  abstrac- 
tion, 267. 

Puberty  in  girls,  177. 

Public  opinion,  150. 

Punishment,  159-62. 


Quetelet,  43. 


R 


Race-prejudice,  108,  120,  258. 

Raffles,  156. 

Ranke,  20. 

Ratzel,  62,  136,  138,  141. 

Recapitulation,  theory  of,  282. 

Regeneration,  36. 

Religion:  and  art,  120;  and 
sex,  115;  as  reflection  of  so- 
cial practices,  158. 

Religious  dedication,  90. 

Rentoul,  289. 

Reproduction,  as  discontinuous 
growth,  7. 

Resistance  to  disease,  40. 

Robin,  31. 

Rodier,  31. 

Rolph,  8. 

Roth,  190. 


Sachs,  9. 

Scherer,  31. 

Schmidt,  31. 

Schoolcraft,  75,  80,  126. 

Science,  oriental  attitude  to- 
ward, 283. 

Seaver,  21. 

Secret  societies,  90. 

Seidlitz,  161. 

Sense-perception  of  lower  races, 
263. 

Sensitiveness  to  opinion,  108, 
III,  113,  119,  151,  202,  206. 

Sensitivity,  251. 


324 


Index 


Sex:  determination  of,  9; 
social  significance  of,  51,  97- 
120;  susceptibility,  119. 

Sexes,    organic    differences   in, 

3-51- 

Sexual:  activity,  29;  charac- 
ters, 1 7 ;  life  as  play-interest, 
177;  life,  primitive  interest 
in,  176;  perversion,  29; 
selection,  15. 

Sewing,  as  man's  work,  139. 

Shame,  201,  202. 

Shooter,  159. 

Showing-off,  108,  151,  236. 

Simcox,  65,  88. 

Size,  relation  of,  to  sex,  14. 

Slave-wife,  81. 

Slavery,  93. 

Smith,  A.  R.,  287. 

Smith,  W.  R.,  63,  85. 

Sophocles,  65. 

Space  problem  in  society,  91. 

Spencer,  187. 

Spencer  and  Gillen,  179,  182, 
187,  213,  216. 

Sporting-woman,  239. 

Starcke,  75. 

Steatopygia,  30. 

Steinen,  215. 

Steinmetz,  81,  84,  163. 

Stimulation,  lack  of  in  woman's 
life,  240,  245. 

Stimulus,  variable  reaction  to, 
209. 

Strategy,  164. 

Strength,  21,  22,  67. 

Suggestibihty,  cultural  signifi- 
cance of,  206. 


Suggestion,  312. 
Suicide,  39. 

Supplementary  wife,    81. 
Suttee,  169. 

Sympathy,  105,  120;     tribal 
character  of   120. 


Taboo,  authority  of,  196. 

Tattooing,  90. 

Technological    skill    of    man, 

145,  230. 
Territory,  92,  150. 
Theft,  encouragement  of,  153. 
Thompson,  G.,  152. 
Thompson,  H.  B.,  23,  105,  202, 

257- 
Thomson,  275. 

Topinard,  18,  19,  20,  50,  255. 
Totemism,  90. 
Tribal  marks,  90. 
Trophies,  155,  206. 
Tropisms,  103. 
Turgenieff,  brain  of,  256. 
Turkey-cock  politics,  116. 
Turner,  125. 
Turquan,  47. 
Tylor,  A.,  16. 
Tylor,  E.  B.,  61,  63. 

U 

Unfamiliarity,    and   emotional 

tension,  196. 
Urine,  34. 
Uterine  displacement,  253. 

V 

Vanity,  iii,  206. 
Variability,  15,  50,  225,  227. 


Index 


325 


Variation,  13. 

Vassar  College  Athletic  Asso- 
ciation, 22. 

Vegetable  environment  of  wom- 
an, 136. 

Vervom,  104. 

Viscera,  28. 

Vitality:  decreased  in  girls  at 
puberty,  45;  decreased  in 
woman  by  reproductive  pro- 
cesses, 48. 

Vogt,  307. 

W 

Wagner,  18. 

Waitz-Gerland,  74,  77,  89,  90. 

Wallace,  16. 

Wappaeus,  43. 

War,  100;  as  sport,  100;  atti- 
tude of  women  toward,  loi, 
133,  206;  social  significance 
of  war,  93. 

Warner,  25. 

Wealth,  127. 

Weaving,  139. 

Weisbach,  19. 

Weismann,  11. 

Welcker,  31. 

Westermarck,  4,  12,  66,  176, 
177,  216,  227. 

Whewell,  272. 


Whitelegge,  41. 

Widows,  sacrifice  of,  169. 

Wilder,  27. 

Wilkes,  90. 

Williams,  S.  W.,  301. 

WilUams,  T.,  169, 

Winckel,  45. 

Woman:  adventitious  charac- 
ter of,  223-47,  302;  as  creator 
of  economic  values,  181,  228; 
as  property,  168,  181,  190, 
297;  as  social  nucleus,  56; 
beauty  of,  127;  capacity  for 
intellectual  work,  313;  char- 
acter of,  237;  contempt  for, 
294;  endurance  of,  313;  fear 
of,  294;  high  position  of,  73; 
indirection  of,  232;  labor  of, 
124,  129,  134;  liberty  of,  in 
America,  311;  not  in  white 
man's  world,  306-12;  occu- 
pations of,  taken  over  by  men, 
139,  144,  230;  present  unrest 
of,  240;  relation  to  occupa- 
tions, 303;  stationary  condi- 
tion of,  51,  55,  123,  133,  228, 
293;  subjection  of,  93,  224, 
230>  235;  withdrawal  of, 
from  labor,  127. 

Work  as  play-interest,  245. 

Wright,  59. 


r 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

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